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Minji found Hanni once in their apartment, following the faint scent of her favourite brand of perfume through the quiet house, towards the fire escape. She found Hanni sitting on it, dangling her legs, eyes looking distant and far away as they used to when she rarely got pensive. She startled when Minji stepped onto the narrow platform, then smiled welcomingly and made space for her.
Minji slid in to sit down beside her with difficulty. She took the sip of wine offered, tasting Hanni on her lips, sweet. She licked her lips and turned to let her gaze run admiringly over Hanni's princessly side profile, with quiet and proud proprietariness.
"You look good," she said, partially to take Hanni's mind off stressful thoughts and partially because it was true. In recent months Minji had noticed. "You're fitter."
Now, Hanni turned to her, putting her glass carefully on the metal platform and smiling at Minji with a dark playfulness that made her heart skip a beat.
"Thanks," she murmured, seeming pleased that Minji had noticed. "I've been working out a little."
Minji was surprised. She had noticed that Hanni sometimes left the house with her pilates bag on the way out but she hadn't guessed she had been actually going to the gym on a regular basis.
"Why?" she asked stupidly, because the air between them suddenly felt a few degrees hotter for no apparent reason.
But she was distracted from her lustful thoughts when Hanni replied, sounding subdued, "You're always protecting me. I want to be stronger for you."
Minji felt a pang of sadness spike in her chest. "You're strong enough," she said firmly, keeping her voice calm. "Darling." Minji touched the side of her face to make her look at her. "I know we're the same age, but can't you let me be the stronger one for you sometimes too?"
Hanni looked surprised, then touched. "Baby..." she said quietly with a small smile, leaning into Minji's palm. "Thank you."
Minji blushed at Hanni's serious, beguiling eyes now completely trained on her, when suddenly the moment was interrupted by Hanni's phone ringing.
She smiled when she saw the screen, sliding the button to accept the call without hesitation. "It's my parents, calling from Australia," she whispered to Minji, who promptly jumped out of her skin.
"W-what?!" she gulped, before hurrying to bow to the screen ridiculously, hands flying up to smooth her hair. Beside her, she heard Hanni softly laughing at her fluster but she was in a total panic, Hanni's parents peering curiously out of the screen at her, waving and calling out cheerful greetings.
"Sweetie, is that the Minji you mentioned?" she heard Hanni's father asking in English, which her grasp of was fluent to understand most conversation by now. Her gaze flew to Hanni as her hands stilled, taken aback that Hanni had brought her up to her parents. What had she told them about her? She panicked further, hoping she didn't look too freaky on the screen.
Then Hanni's mother added, "Your best friend?" and Minji's heart leapt as she looked over at Hanni smiling adoringly at the screen, cheeks flushed with embarrassment and pride.
She nodded easily, then added as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Also my girlfriend now."
An awkward silence fell, in which the video call window lagged for a few excruciating seconds. Then it pixelated into motion, and Hanni's mother's voice streamed out of the speakers, the tinny effect making it sound shrill to Minji's ears. "Sweetheart, you're gay?"
Minji thought she might need a paper bag to breathe into as she whirled around open-mouthed to see Hanni nodding calmly at the phone, looking pale and mildly terrified but also defiant and unabashed.
There was another awkward silence, this time not because of lagging issues. Then her father replied, "Oh. I see."
Hanni turned the phone a little, so the screen faced Minji. "Isn't she beautiful? She's also the nicest girl I've met here. Dad, mom, remember I told you how she supported me, kept me company, and cheered me up when I missed you?"
Her parents paused, before nodding, looking teary-eyed in the small screen. Minji tripped over her words of courtesy as they gratefully thanked her.
"Minji..." Hanni's mother said, beaming tearily at her. "Please take care of our daughter. We worry about her, being so far away from home."
"Yes, please visit us in person soon," her father added warmly. Minji hastily replied with passionate and polite assurances. They seemed impressed that Minji could speak both basic English and Vietnamese and she was relieved she had had the foresight to learn it.
The moment Hanni hung up the phone, Minji nearly shrieked, "Did you just come out to your parents?"
Hanni shrugged, looking unperturbed, but the damp sheen of perspiration on the hair tendrils at her temples betrayed her nonchalance. "No time like the present, right?"
"Oh my god, Hanni --" She was freaking out.
"Ji... I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but they'll just have to deal with it, whether or not they like it. Because I don't want them to ask me when I'll be settling down with a nice Vietnamese boy anymore."
That silenced Minji, who huffed in an unexpected bout of jealousy. "What's wrong with a nice Vietnamese boy?" she asked petulantly.
Hanni closed the distance between them in a smooth move, her lips hovering a breath away from Minji's.
"Nothing," she whispered, eyes bright. "But Minji-yah, you're the one I'm in love with."