Not inspired by anything. Just a rush of random ideas.
Gender-neutral
Angst and hope(?)
Warnings: none
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Seoul was a beautiful city. Bustling with a whole cast of characters, each day was an experience in itself. White-collar office workers, university students, and tourists filled the streets with life. There are always places to go and explore, nooks and crannies around every corner to find the next best hotspot.
For Shuhua, Seoul was exactly that.
The city was a big playground and every day was an adventure. When she wasn't stuck inside practicing or snuggled up in her blankets watching dramas, she was out and about looking for new places to relax or have fun. It was how she had met you in the first place. Well, she first found the cafe you had worked at.
It was during a day of no practice and plenty of free time in hand when she decided it was a good day to go out and potentially find her new favourite store. The sun was shining and it looked like there was no better time than the present. So with her incognito headwear and mask, she strolled out of her dorm and started walking. There was no particular direction she was headed. No goal in mind. Only the feeling in her gut that told her to just walk.
And after a solid fifteen minutes of walking, she spotted the cafe. Small, quaint, and perfect for a quiet cup of coffee and some time to unwind.
She knew from day one it was going to be one of her favourite cafes to visit, but it was when she went with her groupmates that she knew it was going to be somewhere she would frequent a lot more often.
That was when she met you. Shuhua had only been there once before when you weren't working, but when she laid eyes on you, she knew that this had to be fate. The girl thanked her gut for leading her to the cafe before ordering a coffee for herself and letting her friends order as well. She watched as you made her coffee behind the counter and laugh along with one of your co-workers who, while she couldn't catch it, must've said something funny. It was the laugh that she would love to listen to whenever you were around and would want to hear every time the two of you spoke.
But it wasn't just your laugh that pulled Shuhua towards you.
It was your warm smile when she would say the sappiest things.
It was your enveloping hugs whenever she was tired after practice.
It was your gentle touch whenever she had a particularly bad day.
It was your keen interest whenever she would go on a tangent about something.
It was your kind heart whenever she would accidentally spill her coffee for the umpteenth time.
It was everything about you that she fell in love with in the first place and she fell hard. Shuhua's groupmates knew it too. As Yuqi would say, she couldn't understand how you were seemingly oblivious to the Taiwanese girl's feelings. It was only when you had given her your phone number that she fell even more in love with you if it was even possible.
From that moment forward, every day felt brighter. Every second was filled with light and Shuhua couldn't be more excited by each passing minute. Every passing day meant it was another day she could call herself your girlfriend and she was proud of it.
But now, things couldn't be more different.
The years you were away weren't as bright as they used to seem. Even if there was not a single cloud in the sky, there was a cloud hanging over Shuhua's head. Her members knew this too. Seeing their youngest member down day in and day out was hard to watch. None of them could be mad though. At the time, the idea of breaking up seemed the most logical for both of you. Shuhua needed the time for schedules and you needed the time for studying. The distance wouldn't have helped either. It was inevitable, but that didn't mean they liked it.
