There are galaxies between us (and in your eyes)

Bahiyyih is beautiful.
Respectfully so.

Beautiful in all her ways. Beautiful in the simplest of things. When she sits on a chair at the kitchen table, taping away on her phone with a lollipop dangling from her mouth, knees tucked up against her chest, chin gently resting on them. She wobbles on two chair legs. Which she occasionally drops to not get scolded by Yujin or Mashiro. Something seems to have caught her attention on the phone she's scrolling on with the way her eyes suddenly light up. Like there were lightbulbs hiding behind her irises. It was a great contrast from the long, dark, and bored tunnels her pupils could be.

Youngeun watches her from the couch with a soft smile. She knows the moment that one of her members walk in, she's done for. Will get teased endlessly about it. Mashiro might spare her but all the others, absolutely not. She doesn't really care, because Bahiyyih is too much of a sight to see. Her members teasing her is just something she has to put up with. Bahiyyih's eyes sparkle, her eyebrows raising in surprise when she almost stumbles backwards. Only to go back to wobbling on two chair legs seconds later.

Youngeun smiles wider, she feels stupid for it. Maybe it is stupid, staring and smiling at your friend like she's some artwork. But it's something in the way Bahiyyih is just so distinctly her right now that Youngeun finds her eyes glued to the other. Youngeun thinks she might go insane when Bahiyyih lets out a soft chuckle at some stupid video. Youngeun feels warm, from the inside out. Maybe even the outside in, she isn't sure. She's never sure when it's with Bahiyyih, she feels warm, she knows that.

Bahiyyih takes out an earbud when she hears her name being yelled. "Yes" the word is drowned out and irritated, lazily pronounced in a way only Bahiyyih could. She rolls her eyes when she gets no reply. Proceeds to put her earbud back in and focus on her phone.

Bahiyyih is beautiful, in this very moment maybe not even respectfully so. Just blatantly. Obviously. Youngeun finds herself thinking about it more than she should. Of course, Youngeun thinks Bahiyyih is pretty for the start. But it's something in the way that Bahiyyih is simply being herself right now, without a boundary to her actions, that makes her even more gorgeous than she already is. Bahiyyih is just oozing with nothing but utter beauty. And that's a big deal coming from someone who does that from the start anyway.

Youngeun likes to call a moment like this: a "Bahiyyih being Bahiyyih" moment. A moment where the other girl is herself and with that so simply gorgeous that Youngeun finds herself thinking if she's even real.

Youngeun wonders is she's the only one who experiences these moments. If she's the only one who notices them (wonders if Bahiyyih knows she has them). Wonders if she's the only one who thinks about them afterwards. Youngeun wishes she isn't. Because she knows she thinks about Bahiyyih more than what's considered be a "normal" amount to think about your friend.

Of course, everyone thinks of their friends sometimes. Like when Hikaru is bored and wants someone to tease or when Mashiro is ordering online groceries and thinks of every member and what their wishes are. Yujin when she watches a wildlife documentary late at night (it helps her fall asleep. At least, Youngeun thinks it does because no way does anyone at such a young age enjoy those).

Youngeun assumes Yujin thinks of her friends during those documentaries because she always jokes the next morning that she saw "Hiyyih on tv with her lion pack" or "Yeseo and her fellow bunnies".

Everyone thinks of their friends sometimes.

But Youngeun finds herself thinking of Bahiyyih when she walks past a bakery and sees a cute-formed bread, "Hiyyih would love this". When she's listening to specific songs just because the melody is pretty. When she's alone: "What would Hiyyih do right now?" When she's online shopping out of boredom and suddenly sees a top that would really suit Bahiyyih. Wondering if she should show the other. Never doing so in the end, because Bahiyyih was having a way too good time playing flash cards with Xiaoting to improve the other's Korean.