[OP: "Time in a Bottle"--Jim Croce]

Celine stared at them and then turned away.

Mira was mortified. How had this happened again?

Abby was starting to get tired of this.

"It's not that embarrassing," he said, though neither of them had said anything. 

Mira got up off the couch anyway, not sure whether to speak or just wait for Celine to leave.

Celine moved her suitcase farther towards the door, debating whether or not to acknowledge what just happened.

Finally, she glanced at Mira. "I hope you're at least using caution..."

Mira felt herself getting more red.

"It's not like that," she said.

"In every sense of the word," Celine said, coolly.

"So much for starting to soften towards us," Abby muttered in a low voice.

"Do you really still think they're evil?" Mira demanded.

"I don't know what I think now," Celine said. "But, I do think this is rushed. Even under normal circumstances, you can't know someone that well after a few weeks. Both of you should consider that. Also, our lives do not make relationships easy, Mira. Are you planning to neglect your responsibilities once you finish your hiatus? Do you remember there is still more after this?"

"No idea what that will look like right now," Mira said.

"I think Mira deserves to be happy," Abby ventured. "Whatever the future looks like."

"And that is what you can provide?" Celine said.

"Don't." Mira narrowed her eyes. "Mystery was already enough."

Pause.

"Fine," Celine said coolly. "I guess you won't listen to me anyway."

She went out the door.

Mira hesitated but then followed.

Abby didn't think this would end well, and, though he didn't follow, he heard most of what came next, since the doors were not that soundproof.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Mira practically exploded. "After everything you've seen them do, you still think they're demons? And that you have the right to judge them?"

"I don't know what they are, Mira." Celine perhaps was honest about this. "Or if they are dangerous...but they are certainly still not normal."

"We're not normal!"

"No...but we have a higher standard, not a lower one."

"Lower... Did you learn anything about them at all?"

"You can look me in the eyes and tell me you think that boy is truly on the level of a hunter in both virtue and ability?" Celine turned to look at her.

Mira was boiling.

"Yeah," she said, angrily.

Pause.

"Really?" Celine was incredulous.

"Look, whatever ability has to do with this...not everyone is going to be the same." Mira fell back on something Shine had told them during that training week. "But that's not like being lesser... They have different gifts."

"Gifts...whatever that means."

"Makes more sense than you might think."

"I haven't seen much sign of it--" Celine stopped, thinking that Jinu had done something very strange the day before. "Well, anyway, it cannot be on the level of hunters. It's dangerous for them to be around, but that bothers me less than they're still lacking a sense of self... Perhaps you think I am just trying to be hostile to them, but I genuinely am worried that people like that are still missing part of themselves. Can they love you or anyone else? Fully?"

"What does that even mean?" Mira was still angry. "Do any of us do that? I mean, can you even give your entire self to loving anyone?"

That hit Celine between the eyes, since Rumi had exposed that she could not do this already.

She looked down a little.

Mira might have stopped there, as she had made her point, but she was too mad.

"And...for that...I mean...all we offer people is what we can," she said, which, despite her tone, wasn't an unkind thought. "And I think they are offering what they can. If you think they are not normal people, I'm not sure I know what normal means here. I'm broken too... All of us are. So what? Maybe our broken sides fill each other out."

"I've seen no sign of that," Celine said.

"You haven't really tried to," Mira almost growled. "You're judging Abby just for mistakes and still missing some parts of his life? I don't see why it matters... We all made mistakes...and we are missing some stuff, somewhere. It doesn't make anyone less of a person."

"But how do you know, Mira?" Celine was a bit more subdued.

Perhaps it was from fear more than outright hatred towards the boys.

Mira dimly knew this...

She didn't want to really hurt Celine...but she was mad that she clearly thought she could say anything about the boys and it was fine just because of her being wary of them.

"I know because we have a connection," she said, and she sounded less mad than awed as she went on. "I...don't exactly understand it... It was almost instantaneous, but then...it was for all of us. We've been thinking that, maybe, it was supposed to be that way. Maybe the bond is necessary..."

Celine had once heard something very similar from Ryu Mi-yeong...and it made her stomach curdle.

"That connection you have may not be based on the right things," she said. "I could allow that there might be some connection with brokenness...perhaps even their souls do have that. Perhaps even they don't mean to be that way...but that it could be good to bond with people who are like that..."

"You just really don't get it," Mira said, disgusted. "It has been good for me. For all of us, maybe."

"For Zoey?"

"That was your fault!" Sharply. "Before then...yeah, I think it was... She seemed happier. And... I'm...happier too."

It was hard for Mira to say that out loud, but she was upset enough to push herself.

"Because of him?" Celine was still reliving her past conversation now. "But how can that be? How can it not be enough to be one of the Hunters that you need more?"

"It's our job Celine." Mira said something she once never would have said. "It matters, but it's not the same as being a full human being. I'm pretty sure that it never was supposed to be. Maybe that just got lost along the way. Who knows? I mean, do you think you're really a complete person?"

Celine pressed her lips together. "I see...and what does that man have that we hunters do not? Just being a man? I wouldn't have thought that you were so weak to temptation."

"It's not about that!" Mira was mad again at that. "Gosh, do you think I'm 12 years old? Do you think I'd just like someone based on their looks? I mean, do you even know me at all? I know Rumi was your favorite, but I thought you knew us at least."

"I raised Rumi, but it's not that I didn't care about the two of you either," Celine said, uncomfortably. "That is why I'm saying this."

"Funny, this doesn't really sound like caring." Mira clenched her fists. "You didn't trust us with the the truth, and now that we've made our own decisions about it, you're calling us dumb for doing it... Like I don't think things through."

"Well, you are impulsive." Celine was a bit short with her.

"Not about things like this." Mira bristled. "I would never fall for someone just on a whim."

Celine stared at her. "Fall for...no. Mira, tell me this hasn't become more than a light flirtation."

"Physically, it hasn't gone where you're thinking." Mira blushed over the statement. "But it's not just a crush."

"Mira...after weeks, you can't know your feelings that much."

"You know, even if I was wrong at this point, it would still be better than this never ending doubt you have in everyone!" Mira snapped. "Maybe I'd like to think it would work out... Besides, you don't know him at all. He's a good person."

"Who has a criminal record."

"It's not a criminal record. But even if it was, who cares? So he defended his friend. Sue him."

"I think they did."

"Then maybe the problem is how society views people doing that." Mira had a good point there. "When the person literally bullying someone else can sue someone for stopping it, that's disgusting. Maybe we shouldn't be condoning that way of thinking in the first place. As Hunters...aren't we supposed to defend the weak? But you get mad at someone for doing it because they weren't a hunter and they got in trouble for it? I mean...frick, since when does getting in trouble for doing the right thing make it not the right thing?"

"So you believe it was the right thing?" Celine said.

"I believe that it was what it was," Mira said. "And, since then, I've seen him take the same risks as all of us... You're ignoring that too. I didn't expect anyone to want to share our lives--they're so dangerous... To be honest, I never thought anyone would care enough about me to get that close, if they saw the hunter side of it. Or even...just what I'm really like." This was more than she meant to say to Celine of all people, but the words spilled out. 

Celine had never known Mira was so insecure, as, really, she would never have listened to Mira's perspective enough to know her insecurities. Their faults and fears must never be seen, after all.

"Like...though I haven't made this easy for him--" Mira turned self reflective for a moment, looking to the side more. "--and somehow he's still been more patient and understanding with me than even the girls are. I don't know why... It's not like I expected this to happen, but I feel... understood, finally."

"Perhaps this is some sort of honeymoon phase, Mira," Celine said grimly. "No one is perfect. And no one always understands you, no matter what he says. Least of all men, I think."

"Well, maybe not." Mira again got more angry. "Maybe it's true, it's not perfect...but...we don't expect that anymore. I'm okay with it. Finally..." She realized that it was true.

Well, the idea of perfection had never really worked for Mira anyway, and suddenly she realized that part of the Hunters' ideal had always been a weird fit for her, with her past and her issues, and also just her values in the first place.

Perhaps, she would always have had some clash with it, and this had been what instigated it.

How simple it really was once she stopped fighting the idea that it was wrong to accept that.

Like Rumi...she just had never dared to ask if it was really correct to embrace such a limiting viewpoint.

As it sank in, she spoke again, but almost like she wasn't talking to Celine.

"It took meeting someone else enough like me to have made similar mistakes...but different enough to challenge how I handle it...to make me see it. Both of us were the problematic people in our groups...for different reasons, but...and no, we're not exactly the same. That's the only reason it would help. Like, honestly, if I had to pick who handles conflict better, I'd probably pick him."

"You're serious?" Celine couldn't believe Mira would say that in general, not just about a Saja Boy.

"I mean...yeah... You've seen us... I have a much shorter fuse. But...I've been doing a little better lately at controlling myself."

"You're giving him the credit for that?"

"I think it started with sealing the Honmoon again, but...things kept going after that, mostly because of the guys, I think. We did need them, I can't explain why... Maybe...something about both the people who are supposed to save the others, and the ones who most need to be saved working together. Isn't there some balance? Dark meets the light?"

"That is supposed to mean light overcomes the darkness," Celine said.

"So it does." Mira folded her arms yet again. "But we're not the only light... Isn't the point to light up people's souls? So...maybe the souls that were the most in darkness will have the purest light once they're finally ignited?"

She thought of Shine again, who had said that out of the deepest dark shines the purest light.

Perhaps that was what Rumi had pulled off since that fateful day.

And...perhaps, what she had experienced herself, in how she'd started to feel different.

Celine didn't know what to do with this idea.

It was all so beyond her...

She looked away again. "Well...for your sake, Mira, I hope you are right about that. I just don't see it. Maybe I don't know it all--maybe you're all correct about that. Perhaps I can't change that about myself. If you feel I failed you, then...perhaps it comes of doing this alone. It was never supposed to be that way...but I can't stop thinking that it wouldn't have been that way, if not for someone like them getting involved. Even if you blame Kyung or Gwi-Ma...it was still what started it all. Even if they are free, Gwi-Ma is still trying to use them against you all, from the sound of it. If being worried about that makes me the villain...I'm sorry."

She didn't sound truly sorry so much as she was giving up on trying to convince Mira otherwise.

Mira knew it, too. Her mother used to use the same tone on her.

A part of her knew that Celine was speaking from pain...still...

"It's not fair to judge them all by one person," she said coldly. "And they had nothing to do with what happened to Ryu Mi-yeong or Kyung. We're all in this whether we like it or not. All our lives impact each other. I know that's a crazy amount of pressure...but blaming them for it is stupid. Being a hunter involves risk to everyone, not just ourselves... Maybe we're just trying to see if we can make it a little easier for people to defend themselves without needing just our voices."

"Yes...by defeating Gwi-Ma forever, not simply spreading the idea of fighting him to people who may not be able to handle it," Celine said. "And...even if Abby is willing to, Mira, I worry how you will take it if he dies in their battle."

Celine had hit the real issue on the head there...

Mira felt as if she was dashed with cold water.

Celine wasn't trying to be cruel; to her that was a very real fear. She looked at the floor. "You know, I almost couldn't go on after I lost my friends... I had Rumi, at least, to focus on... I hope you remember that you have other people who need you... If you put so much into one person... it may crush you if you lose it. I hope it doesn't happen...but so much is changing...new enemies, new tactics...I can't predict anything anymore. We could all lose everything..."

She herself was always afraid of this.

She walked out after that.

Mira stood there for a long moment and then went back into the sitting room and leaned on the door like she'd lost all her energy.

Abby was still there.

That last part had bothered him also.

"Hey...are you okay?" he asked, gently enough.

Mira shook her head silently.

"Unlit that last...part, I thought I was confident..." she said, after a strained paused. "But that made it all so real again."

"Mira..." Abby took her hand. "Please, don't let her fears about it make you question yourself...or me. Heck, I know I'm a mess, but...I need this too. If...we didn't have a way to make Gwi-Ma pay for what he did, then it's like he won...he took everything, and it was for nothing."

Until this moment, Mira had not understood why Abby was fine with risking his life fighting demons with them.

Funny, hearing that it wasn't just about her didn't make her feel worse. It actually made her feel better.

Love was important...but love had to be built on beliefs and ideals that could keep a solid foundation, or it would always be weak.

Mira had not fully learned this principle yet, but she knew that conviction was behind her bond with the girls, somehow.

Shine, Morph, and Raven had helped her understand this by turns, as she'd learned that losing her confidence in what they did had made her weak.

But...maybe not just her.

"So..." she said aloud, "all this is not just about being in the band... Before, you just followed their lead, like you said...but you finally feel like you have something you would care about outside of them."

"Like...honestly, yeah." Abby hadn't noticed till she said it. "Because it seems like I'm the only one who thinks it's good that we're involved in this. But y'know...knowing all the innocent people who are out that Gwi-Ma could hurt, and that he made us do it too...I feel like the only way to respect myself again is to stop him. At least in some way. So don't worry about it. Honestly, if you all hadn't let us join this, I probably would have attacked the next demon I saw on the street anyway."

Mira finally laughed.

Strangely, she felt as if she was waking up from a spell. The bad kind.

"You know, Celine was just saying that you guys aren't our equals," she said, shaking her head. "But...I dunno. I think wanting to protect people is the most important part of this. So she's wrong."

"She is wrong...but I do get why she's worried about you," Abby admitted. "I wouldn't trust me either if I were her. She wants to protect you... She's really much more like you in that way."

"What?" Mira frowned. "I'm not like that..."

"I don't think you're as cold about it, but I think you'd be worried too, if you were her. On paper, the idea sounds crazy even to me. And I was brain dead not that long ago, so..."

"I know it sounds kinda nutty." Mira calmed slightly. "But it's like...a gut feeling at this point. Like...we've already seen the worst sides of each other anyway--and the best too. The in-between parts, sure, we don't know all that yet, but, it's not that important."

"I think we should talk about that stuff also....about things like favorite color, favorite food, favorite movies..."

"Yeah, well, once you remember all that stuff about yourself, I should probably ask that too," Mira said flatly. "But I never cared that much about it. I learned that stuff about Rumi and Zoey more by osmosis. I mostly cared more about them having my back..."

"That's important, but...the other stuff...isn't that what makes us feel human?" Abby had a good reason.

Mira thought about that for a second.

"Yeah, okay...and we will talk about all those things," she said. "But you know, she is right about one thing...this is dangerous. And we could..." She trailed off.

"That's true for us all," Abby said. "There's not a single one of us Gwi-Ma doesn't hate right now. And we're safer together than we are apart. We all had no chance that way. So...like, don't worry about it. I think you're doing all you can to keep us safe. Beyond that...I mean...stuff happens. I'm not sure what you want to hear."

"I'm not sure either."

Abby thought.

"I told you I wouldn't regret it," he said. "I think I want to stop Gwi-Ma as much as you all do. I mean, you all hate him, but...I felt him take away my personality and my friends...over time, not just for one day. That's not something that's so easy to forgive... Not sure I should, since he's... the devil. But also, people shouldn't have to worry about demons eating them all the time while they're living their lives...and...realistically, I can't imagine anyone else who'd be better to fight Gwi-Ma with than you--and the other two."

Mira smiled again. "It's kinda getting creepy how good you are at knowing what I want to hear."

"Me knowing? I thought I would fly to Cloud 9 hearing what you said out there...though, it would be nice if you said that to my face."

"If your face wasn't usually bragging already, maybe I would." Mira was going more back to her usual self.

"The curse of being confident, I suppose..."

"I'll work on it, but I'm totally embarrassed by what I said to her." Mira put a hand over her eyes. "My gosh...to my mentor. Why didn't I just write a poem and put it in a greeting card catalog?"

"I thought it was moving. You're very romantic when you're angry and not shy about it."

"Shut up."

"But for real, do you really not think we're incomplete people?" Abby had a more real concern.

Mira reflected that the guys had as many insecurities as they did, no matter how brave they talked. [Something I wish more women remembered about guys.]

"I think...we're all not complete, like I said," she said. "Like in Shine's story--we're made to be dependent on each other anyway. It sounds cheesy, but...I can't shake that, since we all became a full team, it feels like something that was missing is finally there. I don't even know what it is."

"You know...I think the same thing, even before being the Saja Boys...something was missing," Abby reflected. "Guess this worked out after all... I wish those other sajas understood it, though. I feel sorry for them."

"Unbelievably, I do too," Mira admitted in a low voice. "And it's your fault. Before, I was able to view them all with disgust and suspicion more than pity. Even if I could have sympathized with them, I would've kept it bottled up. I can't do that anymore. Now I wonder if they are all just deeply wounded people trapped inside those insane deals."

"I wish I could believe they were that innocent, but I doubt they are... Still, they're trapped, and that's close enough for me... Well, this got heavy fast. Want to go back to the couch?"

"Yeah, but, no more making out." Mira looked at the door. "Clearly, it's not safe."

"Can I at least pick the movie then?"

"As long as it's not something cheesy."

"Or a horror movie."

"I thought you didn't even like those."

"You said you didn't either."

Mira didn't comment further. She felt tired now and was glad that they had no plans today. Picking the couch had been the right call.

* * *

Rumi and Jinu had a more pleasant time, since they were not aware of any of the drama that went down.

They mostly just walked around the tourist areas near the hotel, and Rumi had to answer many questions Jinu had about the island.

She didn't know that much about it and soon resorted to consulting her phone to answer. [Ah, modern problem solving.]

But it was fun.

And they swapped more stories about their childhoods. Though, Jinu's stories weren't usually very upbeat. He had not had an easy life.

"My father died of sickness when I was a teenager," he said. "I told you before that was when things got bad... I think he was just too weak... We were never that well off even when he was around, but we weren't starving... I always thought it would be okay if he'd been able to pull through it...and I suspected later that my mother thought that also. When I failed her."

"I'm sure she understood that it was hard for you to leave," Rumi said. "She must have known you couldn't just disobey the emperor."

"I felt ashamed for not realizing that it wasn't a package deal at the time," Jinu reflected darkly. "And for not leaving. I...didn't know what he would do if I did. I wasn't willing to risk it."

"But maybe they knew that if you said no, you probably would have died," Rumi said. "Maybe they didn't blame you."

"Blame me for being stupid enough to believe Gwi-Ma's deal would help us all?" Jinu muttered bitterly.

"Jinu..." Rumi chided.

"I know...I have to stop blaming myself..." Jinu said. "The past in the past. I just wish I had happier memories."

"You must have, once."

"I guess...but...after 400 years...when all the ones Gwi-Ma replayed in my head over and over were the bad ones, no surprise I can't remember anything else well."

"Yeah...I guess... But look, there's hope... Maybe they were okay."

"That's very unlikely."

"But not impossible. You can't know that Gwi-Ma was telling you the truth about them. For all you know, he could have told you they would die just to make you feel worse... They could have found a way."

"There are.. options for that would be worse than death, some might say," Jinu said uneasily.

Rumi was silent for a moment. Then she took his hand. "We can only hope and try to get better."

"Yes...at least I have a chance to do better this time around," Jinu said.

"For you, that was optimistic."

"I'm starting to feel less crushed by it...and your optimism might be contagious. I just hope that your lack of punctuality isn't."

"I wasn't late today!" With a shove.

"I literally gave you extra time to get ready because I knew you would be late if I didn't."

[Well, that's 400-year old wisdom right there...also a strategy I wish worked more in real life for me personally.]

"Shut up," Rumi said playfully.

The mood turned more serious again after that though. Both of them were lost in thought.

"You ever think about what you'll do if we win this?" Jinu asked finally. "What if the Honmoon is finally sealed? At least, enough to keep people safe?"

"I guess then we get to figure out what to do with the rest of our time," Rumi said slowly. "I haven't had a lot of time to focus on it."

"What would you do if you could?"

"I...don't know." With a strange laugh. "I've never been anything but a Hunter. Celine and I never talked about it... I mean, look at her, she's never found anything else to do."

"I think she's more stuck in the past than I am."

"Yeah...maybe." Rumi didn't know exactly when, but her anger at Celine had evaporated in the last few days.

Strange, since Celine really hadn't been much nicer to anyone, but...seeing her working with them, and also how that creepy Delray saja had targeted her, Rumi had come to see that Celine was just as vulnerable as the rest of them were to her weaknesses being exploited.

That being the case...she really just...was human. 

That, and since the story of how The Sunlight Sisters had dissolved had finally had time to sink in, Rumi's head had cleared enough to see that Celine had been mostly the victim of the tragedy and at a loss for how to deal with it. She would have to soften towards her mentor after that, with how close she'd come to being in the same situation.

"I just want you to be happy," Jinu said, after a pause. "Really. You deserve it after everything."

"You do too."

"I don't deserve it, but, we don't get what we deserve."

"Hm." Rumi smiled a bit teasingly again. "Maybe you shouldn't hope I get what I deserve then."

"Well, fine...I hope you end up happy, whether you deserve it or not." Jinu knew that sounded impish when he said it, obviously.

Rumi didn't smack him that time though.

"Yeah, well, same I guess," she said, also impish but with a serious note under it. "But seriously, Jinu...you should be happy too."

"I'm happy when I'm with you." Jinu didn't mean that to be as smooth as it was...but he realized it after he said it and was a little proud of himself.

Rumi blushed. "Wow...well...yeah, so am I."

"When you're with yourself?"

"You know what I meant. Geez, I was trying to be serious."

"Sorry...you're just fun to mess with."

"Jinu!" Rumi pretended to scold him. "We were having a moment."

"Okay, so I'm not that good with emotions... I've been alone for 400 years." Jinu held up his hands. "I guess I was trying to say...well, obviously, you're important to me, but there never... seems to be any time to say that...or show it, with all the stuff that's been going on. I know we're supposed to be together, but I don't think either of us knows what that means yet."

"No, I guess not," Rumi admitted. "But...in a way, I mean, you jumped into all this with us, even though you could have resented it. That's romantic, in a way. And I've never doubted that you care, even if we didn't get a lotta time to talk about it... Do you not feel confident about me?"

"No, I know you care... I mean, you went out of your way to help me even before I was willing to help you. That's how much you care, so how could I not...?" Jinu stopped short of saying something else.

Rumi was disappointed that he'd stopped. "How could you not what?"

"Nevermind."

"No, come on...say it."

"I..." Jinu was turning red now. "I guess...I was trying to say...um, that..."

He hadn't fumbled this much since their confession or that other time with the bracelet.

Of course, Rumi always found that really adorable.

She kissed him before he could even get the words out.

"I love you too," she said.

Jinu stared at her.

Rumi was afraid for a second she guessed wrong about where he was going with that.

But then Jinu smiled. "You beat me to it."

Rumi smiled back too.

They kissed again.

[Aww...well, two down... Really need Zoey and Mystery to finally get past this sad stuff.]

* * *

Zoey and Romance's errand was uneventful.

They did talk more about how it was to be dumped at a low point in your life. Zoey hadn't really seen the similarities before, but Romance had thought it was kinda uncanny.

"So does it ever get easier?" Zoey asked.

"Hmm, well, I suppose if you lost your memory of it for 23 years it might start to feel farther away," Romance said dryly. "But I don't recommend that method."

Zoey laughed. "Yeah, well...thanks for at least trying to help. I mean, at least I'm not the only one...though it would be better if I was."

"I still think there's hope, but, I don't know, he's so deep into this funk, it's like nothing we say can get to him," Romance mused. "I'm not sure that he doesn't think we're right, but he's not doing anything about it. I guess it's hard to choose to do something sometimes...but I think I couldn't let a chance like that slip by. We don't get so many chances in life for happiness."

"Guess that is true," Zoey mused. "Yeah...well...maybe some people define happiness differently though? I dunno."

"Do you know, though, I think he thinks I might start liking you?" Romance wouldn't have brought this up if he wasn't pretty sure Zoey didn't see him that way.

Her reaction proved his point, as she got a very befuddled look. "Uh...what?"

"I suppose I do get overly attached." Romance was more aware of his weaknesses after weeks of reviving his memories. "But...I'm not the kind of person who'd steal someone else's crush."

"I...uh...well, yeah...I didn't think you were doing that," Zoey said. "But why would Mystery...?"

"Oh, I think he's just insecure enough to think anyone could replace him, but you know...I think people have to have...a connection of a certain kind."

"Yeah...are you trying to friend zone me, right now?" Zoey asked.

"I don't mean it to be offensive, I just...that wasn't what I had in mind, you know... I just wanted to help...and try to do something unselfish for once... But it seems the other guys all think I would do the same thing I did in the past."

"Oh, that's too bad...but I don't think that's what you're doing," Zoey said. "I didn't at all, I swear. You can be nice without doing it for selfish reasons. And also, no offense, but you're not really my type anyway."

"Well, that's a bit hurtful, but I suppose I said it at first."

"You're cool and all, but...I dunno, I think we're too much alike..." Zoey waved wildly. "I mean... we're both...high energy...and I'm kinda more into people who are different from me. Always was that way... It's not personal, you know, just..."

"Yes, I understand. It's how you're wired... No, I'm the same way. I just clash with certain personalities...and yeah, I agree also, sometimes people who are high energy can be exhausting... I mean, my own emotions are already so much to deal with."

"I mean, it sounds bad, but...I guess I'm most comfortable around people who don't really expect me to act a certain way..." Zoey said.

"Yes...I think I get it," Romance said.

There was an awkward pause.

"I feel like this is weird right now..." Romance realized.

Zoey almost smiled ironically also. "I guess. But hey, I think we'd still be cool friends. And it'd be nice to have someone to fangirl with about k-dramas. Mira and Rumi just don't get into them, you know?"

"I think they're too addictive... Honestly, it's a problem."

"Yeah, like you know they're drawing you in on purpose, but you'd still get hooked..."

They got on other topics, and that was the last time Zoey or Romance ever brought up the idea of being together.

[Sorry to disappoint anyone who was shipping them, but I just could not see their personalities aligning at all, so I think it's best to keep our OG pairings. I do like them as friends though, feels very fun.]