How can I put space between flexbox elements?

Issue

I was wondering if there was a way I could have two divs/spans in the same column and have an adequate space in between.

End goal:

What I currently have:

With Text Count:

HTML:

 <div class="emoji-text-container">
        <textarea type="text" class="text-area form-control" maxlength="279" formControlName="twitterText">
        </textarea>
        <button #toggleEmojiTwitter class="emoji-button mt-2 mr-2" type="button" (click)="_isTwitterEmojiPickerVisible = !_isTwitterEmojiPickerVisible"><mdb-icon class="emoji-icon" far icon="smile"></mdb-icon></button>
        <span class="text-count" [hidden]="_isTwitterEmojiPickerVisible">
          <span>{{_twitterCharLimit - this._postsForm.get('twitterText').value.length}}</span>
        </span>
 </div>

CSS:

//Emoji and Text Count

.emoji-container,
.emoji-text-container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: start;
  margin: auto;
  border: 1px solid #d9d7d8;
}

.text-area {
  min-height: 15rem;
  border: 0;
  resize: none;
  outline: none;
  border: none;
  -webkit-box-shadow: none;
  -moz-box-shadow: none;
  box-shadow: none;
}

.emoji-button {
  border-radius: 25px;
  width: 45px;
  height: 30px;
  border: 1px solid #c8c8c8;
  font-size: 20px;
  background: transparent;
  cursor: pointer;

  &:focus {
    outline: 0;
  }
}

.emoji-icon {
  color: #9a9696;
}

.text-count {
  font-size: 14px;
  border-radius: 25px;
  background-color: #f4f2f2;
  width: 3rem;
  height: 12%;
  padding-top: 4px;
  font-weight: bold;
  color: #8e8d8d;
  border: 1px solid #c8c8c8;
  text-align: center;
}

Solution

The easiest setup will be to wrap your smiley and count elements in additional flex wrapper, like so:

.container {
  display: flex;
}

.textarea {
   height: 100px;
}

.sidebar {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
  flex-direction: column;
}

<div class="container">
  <textarea class="textarea"></textarea>
  <div class="sidebar">
    <div class="smile">😅</div>
    <div class="text">12</div>
  </div>
</div>

Answered By - Kuzzy