you got me kicking and screaming over here, this is so good!! hits all of the right spots so hard. i love how you very easily get the sense that aeri has stayed in one place (despite physically leaving to tokyo) while it seems like the others have moved on, and how it ties into the seasonal phenomena of the cherry blossoms. the cherry blossoms!! thematically i love how they're used in moments of nostalgia/and retrospective, a pretty scene but not without bringing up these strong feelings of longing (for minjeong and the group dynamic as a whole). it's like those emotions are raining down on her here with the cherry blossom petals, which is really not that strong of a rain but because of the amount it could be overwhelming, maybe i'm reading too much into that anyway i love this so much it's so wonderful

Aeri knows regret when she hears it, when she sees it—after all, she’s written all about it. Regrets weigh on people in indefinite ways that need an eyeful to see. In Minjeong, she sees it lean along her shoulders, the lines of her lips, hanging there in the faint creases of her eyes.

Aeri thinks it over, considers the years that have passed and she cannot claim to know Minjeong now, not the way she did at twenty, with the arrogance of youth and the assurance of a place in Minjeong’s life.

love this part so much. i love the idea of knowing someone once but as time passes and you grow distant you don't necessarily know the new version of them that's in front of you. and coupled with this sense of regret that aeri can see in minjeong's body language because she knows it well herself. waugh!!!

“I am really happy for you.” Minjeong declares. “You seem happy."

Minjeong will not lie to her. She will say, you are happy, or you are afraid, or you are too slow. She will meet you where the fight is, blade meeting you head-on. She will spare no tender mercies. This is how Aeri learns and wants to be honest too. It is because Minjeong is kinder than she knows.

my god!!! gut wrenching thank you for writing!!!