Yellow - Winrina

- ten -

"Winter, you don't have to cry," Ningning piped up, joining Giselle on the floor next to the girl. "It's all cleaned up, see?" she pointed to the doorway. Winter didn't respond to their attempts at comforting her, she just continued crying into her hands.

Giselle and Ningning exchanged glances. Neither one of them knew what they were supposed to do. Sighing softly, Giselle motioned towards the door.

"Go ahead, she doesn't need to be there when you buy her clothes," Giselle said. "Just get whatever you think she needs, I'll stay here with her."

Ningning nodded silently. Giselle scooted closer to Winter and slowly reached out to place a hand on the girl's back. Winter continued crying, and the two roommates felt powerless. Sighing, Ningning grabbed her purse and gave Giselle one last sympathetic wave before slipping out the door.

For the next hour, no matter what Giselle said, Winter continued crying. Giselle sat quietly next to her, even considering texting Karina for help. But she refrained, knowing it was a bad idea.

"My Yooji," Winter whispered, looking up slowly and scanning the apartment. Giselle glanced over at the girl, whose cheeks were now tear stained. Winter looked pleadingly at her.

"Karina's at school right now, Winter," Giselle sighed. There was no way she could fix that problem for the other girl. She saw the look of disappointment on Winter's face. Without another word, Winter crawled to her feet and shuffled up the stairs. Confused, Giselle followed close behind.

Winter tiptoed into Karina's room and went straight for the bed. Giselle peeked her head in the door, finding the girl nestled under the covers. Sighing heavily, Giselle closed the door to Karina's bedroom to try and give Winter some peace and quiet.

Meanwhile, Karina was aimlessly scrolling through her phone in the library of her college. She had a 20 minute break in between classes and never how to occupy her time. While scrolling through Facebook, she saw a familiar face on her 'Recommended Friends list'.

She quickly clicked on the the user's profile, recognizing Shin Ryujin as one of the cheerleaders that Winter was friends with in high school. Karina had never thought of contacting them.

For some reason, she felt guilty for looking through Winter's past life. But she decided that she needed some sort of explanation for how Winter had ended up on their doorway. Ryujin's profile was public, so Karina began scrolling through her photos.

Winter wasn't featured in anything recent, but Karina finally recognized the younger girl's face in an album of photos from the first party of the summer, celebrating their high school graduation. Karina and her friends hadn't been present. They were already on the road to New York.

It was obvious that everyone at the party was either drunk or high. Or both. Karina bit her lip as she scrolled through the pictures, going back even earlier. She found pictures of Winter with the cheer team, smiling brightly. Karina got chills from looking at these photos and thinking just how different Winter seemed, compared to how she'd been in high school.

She paused on a certain picture, though, raising her eyebrows. It was a picture of the cheerleaders and their boyfriends, Winter included. Karina had completely forgotten that Winter was dating someone at the time they graduated. She furrowed her eyebrows together, thinking for a moment. What was his name? Jaemin.

His name had been Jaemin, Karina remembered. She crinkled her nose at the mention of his name, wondering when he and Winter ended.

She reached the end of Ryujin's photos, and slumped back in her chair. She was still dying for information. Checking the time, Karina realized she had ten minutes left until she had to leave for her next class. Gathering her things, she made her way to the computer in the corner of the library.