Episode 01

𝘈𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯..

𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 - 01

“We can’t stay just friends,” Feena said quietly.

“I see you as my… other half.”

“Huh?”

The word barely left Kysa’s lips.

She stood frozen, staring at Feena as if the world had suddenly tilted off its axis. Her eyes widened—not dramatically, not loudly—but in that helpless, childish way where surprise steals all language away. Her lips parted, then closed again, like she was trying to catch a thought that refused to be caught. For a moment, she looked less like a person and more like a question left unanswered.

Feena exhaled slowly, as if she had been holding her breath for a very long time.

She reached out and took Kysa’s hand in hers. Kysa’s fingers were warm—too warm for someone who understood nothing yet. She was all confusion, all innocence, like a child standing at the edge of a feeling she didn’t have words for.

“I don’t mean love the way people casually say it,”

Feena continued, her voice trembling but steady at the same time.

“Not the kind that fits easily into sentences. I mean the kind that stays. The kind that notices you even when you’re silent. The kind that feels incomplete when you’re not around.”

She looked at Kysa then, really looked at her.

“I love you in a way that doesn’t know how to leave.”

Kysa blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Her brows knitted together as if she were trying to solve a problem far too big for her age. She pulled her hand back slightly—not in rejection, but in confusion.

“I… I’m sorry,” she said honestly. “I don’t think I understand.”

She hesitated, then added softly,

“I love you too. Of course I do. That’s normal, isn’t it? But… more than that?” Her voice dropped, uncertain.

“We’re both girls. What kind of love are you talking about?”

She wasn’t scared.

She wasn’t angry.

She was just sixteen years old—standing face to face with a feeling she didn’t yet have a name for.

And Feena knew.

This was only the beginning.

Two years later..

Morning had already begun, but Kysa’s room was still drowning in the lazy silence of sleep.

Her phone, however, had other plans.

It rang once.

Twice.

Then again—relentless, persistent, almost angry.

With an irritated groan, Kysa dragged her hand across the bed until her fingers finally found the vibrating phone. Her eyes were barely open as she answered the call.

“Hello…”

The moment she put the phone to her ear—

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!”

Kysa flinched so hard she nearly dropped the phone.

“Today is your first day at college, and you’re still sleeping?!”

the girl on the other side shouted without mercy.

“You have mentor draw today, Kysa! How can you still be snoozing?!”

Kysa winced, pulling the phone slightly away from her ear.

“Phi… you don’t have to yell,” she murmured sleepily.

“I only need a few minutes to get ready… and I still have one hour.”

The girl continued scolding her anyway.

Kysa simply chuckled under her breath, already used to this dramatic morning routine. After a few more warnings and threats from the other side of the call, she finally promised to hurry.

“Fine, fine. I’m getting up.”

She stretched her arms lazily, blinking away the last traces of sleep before dragging herself out of bed.

Twenty minutes later.

Kysa stood awkwardly at the college campus entrance.

Students were everywhere—walking in groups, laughing, chatting excitedly, their voices filling the morning air with unfamiliar energy.

Kysa, meanwhile, looked completely lost.

Her eyes wandered around the crowd, searching.

Where is she…?

“Are you Kysa?”

Kysa turned at the sound of the voice.

A girl stood beside her, smiling gently.

Kysa nodded.

The girl’s smile widened, warm and reassuring.

“I’m Tropa,” she said. “Your phi Soha’s friend. She sent me to help you.”

“Oh—hello, phi.”

Kysa greeted her politely, lowering her head slightly out of respect for her senior.

Tropa chuckled softly at her shy politeness and gestured for her to follow.

“Come on. The mentoring program is about to start.”

They had barely walked a few steps when another familiar voice cut through the air.

“You! Finally came? Huh?”

Soha marched toward them, pointing accusingly at Kysa.

“If I hadn’t called you, you probably wouldn’t have come at all!”

Kysa puffed her cheeks in protest.

“But I made it here in twenty minutes, hm!”

“Because you were scared of me, obviously,” Soha shot back.

Tropa burst into laughter at the two of them.

Shaking her head, she gently patted Kysa’s shoulder.

“No, Kysa. Seriously,” she said kindly. “This program is important. You should attend every mentoring program until you reach your senior year.”

Kysa listened carefully and nodded.

“Yes, phi.”

Though she still looked a little lost in the unfamiliar campus, something about the morning felt strangely exciting—

like the beginning of a chapter she didn’t know she was about to enter.

The afternoon heat pressed heavily against the campus, making the air feel slow and lazy.

Kysa sat on one of the benches beneath a large tree, her head slightly lowered as her fingers moved quickly across her phone screen. Around her, the mentoring program continued with loud chatter and scattered laughter, but she barely paid attention.

Beside her, Tropa stood with a tired sigh.

“This heat is unbearable,” she muttered, fanning herself slightly with her hand.

Kysa hummed absentmindedly, still scrolling through her phone.

Soha, who had been standing with them a moment ago, had already left.

“I’m going to get us some drinks,” she had said earlier. “You two look like you’re about to melt.”

Now she was gone, leaving Kysa and Tropa waiting beneath the shade.

Tropa glanced around the campus.

“Soha still hasn’t come back?” she asked.

Kysa lifted her eyes from her phone for a second and shook her head.

“Not yet, phi.”

“Hmm.”

Tropa checked the time on her own phone and sighed.

“My mentee should be here any minute. I told her to meet me around this area.”

Kysa only nodded again, her attention drifting right back to the screen in her hands.

A few moments later, Soha finally appeared in the distance, walking toward them with three cold drinks in her hands.

Tropa noticed her first.

“Oh, she’s coming,” Tropa said with a small smile. “Good. Then I can introduce my mentee too.”

Kysa barely reacted, still typing on her phone.

Tropa turned her head slightly and called out toward someone behind her.

“Feena, over here!”

The name slipped into the air so casually.

But the effect was anything but casual.

Kysa’s fingers stopped moving.

The screen of her phone dimmed slowly in her hands.

For a moment, she didn’t look up.

Then—very slowly—she lifted her head.

A girl was walking toward them from across the courtyard.

Two years had passed.

People change in two years. Faces mature, voices deepen, expressions shift.

But some things remain painfully recognizable.

Kysa knew those eyes.

Even from a distance.

Even after all this time.

Her breath caught quietly in her throat.

Feena.

Feena slowed her steps when she noticed who was sitting on the bench.

For a brief moment, her expression flickered with something unreadable—surprise, perhaps… or something deeper.

But it disappeared almost immediately.

By the time she reached them, her face looked calm.

Almost too calm.

Tropa smiled brightly, completely unaware of the strange silence forming between the two girls.

Soha arrived at the same time, holding out the drinks.

Only then did Tropa finish her sentence.

“This is my mentee, Feena.”

The name settled between them like a stone dropped into still water.

Kysa stared.

Feena met her gaze quietly.

Neither of them spoke.

Soha blinked, looking from one girl to the other.

“…Wait,” she said slowly. “Why do you two look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

The campus buzzed with noise around them.

But in that small space beneath the tree—

everything suddenly felt very, very quiet.

Neither of them answered.

Kysa could hear her own heartbeat louder than the noise of the campus around her.

Feena.

The name echoed inside her head like a memory she had forgotten she carried.

Two years.

Two whole years since that afternoon in high school. Since those strange words Feena had said with such trembling certainty. Since Kysa had stood there, confused, apologizing for something she didn’t even understand.

And now—

Here she was.

Standing only a few steps away.

Kysa suddenly became very aware of everything: the drink in her hand, the heat pressing against her skin, the way Feena looked now… calmer… different.

Was she always this quiet?

Kysa couldn’t remember.

Or maybe she had simply never looked closely enough before.

Before anyone could answer, Soha stepped forward and handed the drinks out.

“Here,” Soha said, passing one to Kysa and another to Tropa. Then she noticed the third cup still in her hand and frowned.

“Oh… great,” she sighed. “I bought three drinks without thinking.”

Soha looked at Tropa.

“You didn’t tell me your mentee was coming already.”

Kysa glanced down at the cup in her hand.

Coconut tea.

She paused.

A small wrinkle appeared between her brows.

Great.

Kysa didn’t drink coconut tea. She had never liked it.

For a brief moment she considered keeping quiet and just forcing herself to drink it anyway.

But then—

her eyes shifted.

Feena was standing right there.

And without thinking too much about it, Kysa held the drink out toward her.

“You can take this if you want,” she said casually.

Feena looked at the cup, then at Kysa.

Kysa scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.

“I mean… you used to like coconut tea, right?” she added.

“I figured your taste probably hasn’t changed in two years.”

The words slipped out naturally.

Only after saying them did Kysa realize what she had just revealed.

For a brief second, the air between them felt strangely still.

Feena stared at the cup in her hand.

Then slowly… she accepted it.

“…It hasn’t,” she said quietly.

Her fingers wrapped around the cup.

Across from them, Soha blinked.

Then blinked again.

Across from them, Soha narrowed her eyes.

“…Hold on.”

Tropa looked confused. “What?”

Soha pointed between Kysa and Feena.

“You two.”

She tilted her head.

“Do you know each other?”

Kysa froze slightly.

Feena lifted the coconut tea to her lips and took a calm sip.

“…We’ve met before,” she said.

That was all.

But somehow—

the way she said it made it sound like a story no one else knew yet.

For a brief second, silence hovered between them.

Then Soha simply nodded.

“Oh. That makes things easier then,” she said, sounding relieved.

Tropa smiled as well.

“Right? At least introductions won’t be awkward.”

Neither of them seemed particularly curious. To them, it was just a small coincidence—two people who had crossed paths before.

But for Kysa, it didn’t feel small at all.

She sounds so normal.

Feena had said those words so calmly… as if nothing important had ever happened between them.

As if that afternoon two years ago had simply faded away.

A strange feeling twisted inside Kysa’s chest.

Back then, she hadn’t understood anything.

She had been too young, too confused, too careless with her words.

“We’re both girls… what kind of love are you talking about?”

The memory suddenly felt heavier than it used to.

Kysa swallowed quietly.

Did I hurt her that day?

She wasn’t sure.

But the thought lingered, leaving behind a quiet sense of regret she couldn’t quite explain.

Beside her, Feena took another small sip of the coconut tea.

Her eyes drifted toward Kysa again.

For a moment—just a moment—surprise flickered across her face.

Two years ago, Kysa had looked smaller. Softer somehow.

Now she stood taller, her shoulders broader, her presence a little more confident.

Her hair was shorter.

Her voice deeper.

Even the way she stood felt different.

Feena almost didn’t recognize her at first.

She changed…

The realization settled quietly in her mind.

But instead of lingering on it, Feena simply looked away again.

Time had moved forward.

And so had she.

“Alright,” Tropa clapped her hands lightly. “We should head to the mentoring hall.”

“Yeah,” Soha agreed. “Orientation will start soon.”

They began walking toward the building together.

Soha and Tropa talked casually in front, discussing the mentoring schedule.

Behind them, Kysa and Feena walked side by side.

Not too close.

Not too far.

Neither of them spoke.

Yet somehow—

the silence between them felt heavier than any conversation.

~𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒆~

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