pia.

  it  had  taken  all  of  his  strength  to  pull  himself  out  of  bed.  always  one  to  wallow  in  self  -  pity,  he  hadn’t  at  all  expected  his  text  of  how  he  wanted  to  be  put  out  of  his  misery  to  be  taken  seriously.  his  members  knew  of  his  flare  for  the  dramatic,  keeping a wide  berth  from  him  once  they  realized  his  problem.  and  since  he  was  taking  advantage  of  his  down  time  to  just  lounge  around  at  home,  he  wasn’t  expecting  any  visitors  either.

        the  apartment  was  littered  in  tissues  and  haphazardly  strewn  clothes,  all  of  which  nearly  tripped  him  as  he  made  his  way  to  the  door.  swaddled  in  a  thick,  comforting  balnket,  he  squinted  at  the  person  on  the  other  side raof  the  door  in  confusion.  had  he  texted  her  in  his  stupor  ?  whose  name  was  hers  closest  to  ?  hell,  he  couldn’t  even  remember  if  he’d  saved  the  girl’s  number  under  her  birth  or  stage  name.  but  then  his  eyes  fell  on  the  objects  in  her  hands,  and  a  tiny  smile  crept  across  his  face.

        “  sorry,  ”   bogeun  croaked,  the  picture  of  sheepish.  playing  up  the  rasp  in  his  voice,  he  coughed  a  little  into  his  hand.  “  must  not  have  heard  it  the  first  forty  -  nine  times.  everything’s  all  sorts  of  congested,  so  i’m  …  basically  on  the  verge  of  death  ?  someone  could’ve  come  in  and  murdered  me  and  i  wouldn’t  have  noticed.  and,  frankly,  i  kind  of  wish  someone  had.  ”  that,  at  least,  was  not  an  exaggeration.  his  sinuses  were  killing  him.

“you’re sick? if i would’ve known that, i would’ve brought soup,” minji said, a smile tugging at her lips. everything about the other said she should feel pity for him, but she could only feel amusement. she’d certainly expected the worse, so she was pretty relieved to see the other was just being expressive about being sick. after letting out a small, muffled laugh, minji cleared her throat in guilt and began to speak.

“this should help,” she continued, holding up the bowl with a comforting smile. “i’m sorry for coming so unexpectedly, i just didn’t know what was going on. i wanted to be sure you were okay.” this was a common move for minji, making spontaneous decisions without ever consulting rationality. it probably wasn’t the best decision to show up at someone’s house at night while probably waking up surrounding neighbors, but hey. now that she was here, she’d make the most of it, and put her motherly skills to work.

texting was sometimes dangerous for people often had the tendency to interpret certain messages in the wrong way. even the simplest of texts could seem troubling to some people and arabella did have a small problem with conveying her real emotions into messages. from time to time, she seemed insensitive and cold, but underneath that cool and beautiful mask she had a golden center. however, many worries plagued her life ( mostly family issues ) and although she often tried to keep them hidden from the rest of the world almost all the time, she couldn’t pretend forever. texting minji at first had seemed like a good idea, but her sudden arrival managed to scare arabella to a certain extent. she still wasn’t completely ready to share her concerns with anyone.

‘‘gosh, calm down. your hands will be fine. it’s not mathematically possible that you’ve knocked so many times in such a short period of time. i don’t understand what you’re talking about. i’m fine, but i’ll never say no to some food. i hope you’ve brought something delicious,’’ opening the door slowly, she moved aside to let the other girl enter her dorm.’’ knock knock knock knock knock on my door. and you probably had to knock so many times because i was sleeping. it’s honestly very hard to wake me up. please feel free to make yourself at home.’’

“mathmetically? gosh, arabella, it’s way too late to be talking about anything relatively educational. but seriously, are you sure? you just...worry me sometimes,” minji sighed, relieved arabella seemed somewhat okay. she never truly knew, though, the other was nearly impossible to read.

“i’m on a really small budget, but i tried my best with what i had. i brought some ramen - but trust me, it’s good. i put my heart and soul into this stuff, so it better be delicious,” she rambled as she walked into the dorm. letting out a dramatic huff, she spread the contents of the bag onto the counter, silently offering both the food and drinks to arabella.

minji knew well just how different they were, and that the other may not particularly appreciate her upbeat personality this late at night. but. she didn’t mind, all she hoped for was to lighten the mood, and it seemed the food had partially done the job.

“i told you, i really have been knocking forever!” she argued, before proceeding to open the containers and pour some ramen into a bowl. sliding the bowl to arabella, she sent her a grin and began to prepare her own bowl.

“i’m fine. it’s late, go home.” please. leave me alone. (it’s a lie. the loneliness–it makes her ache.)

there are no words for this. how everything starts to blur and color over in shades of blue (of melancholy). some darker than others. some clogged in her throat. others manifesting out in the clench of a jaw and a dry mouth. she has no words for this–the sorrow, the exhaustion–but minji knows. maybe that’s why she’s here. on purpose. like a bloodhound locking onto a scent. the rapid succession of knocks tells her somehow she’s been found.

she ignores the first round of staccato raps in favor of watching. the city’s half-awake, half-asleep. bright lights dampen everything in sight. spring-warm breezes turn the evening air a touch soupy and damp; the hint of humidity an early warning sign for an incoming storm. silence sits like a well-behaved (though, often) uninvited guest at the coffee table. it’s just mina and some nameless brand of tea–one of those evenings.

she sits. quiet and worn out and lazily dressed, wearing the kind of hoodie that swallows her up instead of handing off her shoulders. the kind you just know she’s stolen from someone. she sits and her mind drifts in the middle of minji’s pleading. away from the pencil held limply between her fingers and the now lukewarm cup of chamomile sitting at the edge of her notebook. outside, minji wages a war with the door. inside, a war is waged beneath her skin. it’s violent and thrumming; a persistent churn settling at the pit of her stomach, rock heavy and draining.

round 3 of knocks and worrisome pleas come and go. her heart only cracks when she hears minji sigh. so mina bends, gathers up all her jagged edges and plasters on a well-worn smile tinged with exhaustion. she opens the door two seconds before round 4′s likely to start. “do you even know what time it is?” she’d like to know. she stopped checking after 10pm. “said i was fine. just being…dramatic, ‘s all.”

“mina, just open the door, before i-” just as she rose her hand to pound on the door, her hand froze mid-air as she saw the door open. in front of her stood an obviously exhausted girl. she knew the look well, how she managed to smile throughout all the weights dragging her down. though she’d been hopeful, a part of her hadn’t expected the door to open, and she simply stood in surprise, slowly retreating her hand from the air.

it made minji feel awful, seeing her friend so upset, but she tried not to let her shock show too much. right then, she vowed not to leave until she knew the other was alright. there were two methods - the sympathetic, and the unsympathetic. it’d be easy to coddle mina, say it was alright, that whatever it was would get better. but she knew better. why use such a recycled statement, especially with mina?

“it’s almost two. what a welcome, you leave me out in the cold, then don’t even say hello? you’d better be happy i can’t get a refund on these,” she said, holding up the soju and ramen. her familiar grin lingered on her lips, the silent way to comfort the other. there were days like these, minji knew, where mina didn’t need “support”. she needed a friend, who wouldn’t treat her like some broken doll. and as a friend, minji was a huge tease and loved to play around. so that’s exactly what she’d do.

jihoon had just spent several hours at bc entertainment’s recording studio laying down vocals for the tracks that were going to be included on charm’s upcoming japanese album, and all he wanted to do was relax and get some sleep before he would have to get up and do the same thing all over again the next day.

just as soon as he was beginning to fall deeper into his slumber thumps began breaking through his sleepy stupor. it took a while for his brain to register what those thumps were, and when he did, he let out a loud groan. apparently he was still the only one in the dorm. he had arrived home alone, and none of his group mates had made it back just yet. he wondered what was taking them so long? the knocking sounded again. was that one of his group mates and they had just forgotten their keys? he threw back his covers and made his way down the hall and towards the front door. he didn’t want to keep any of his group mates waiting.

when he pulled the door open, he didn’t see what he had expected. instead of a guy, it was a girl. a girl holding what seemed to be food. “umm..” he was confused. he recognized the girl as a fellow idol, so he knew she wasn’t a fan or something of the sort. “are you looking for one of my group members? none of them are home.. but you can come in and wait for whoever it is you’re looking for if you’d like?”

once the door opened, the girl quickly moved her head as to not fall forward. letting her eyes flutter close, she let out a sigh of relief, thankful the door had finally opened.

“thank god, i’ve been waiting forever. no-” when she heard the voice, her eyes flung open as she looked at the other in shock. she did recognize the other, but he wasn’t who she was expecting. awkwardly, she closed her mouth and backed up from the door, looking down in embarrassment. had she really been making that much noise on someone else’s door?

“i’m so sorry!” minji said, sincerely apologetic. she’d been in such a panic from the text that she didn’t stop to consider her friend may not even be home. the girl now felt stupid, hoping her small reputation would be enough to identify her as a fellow idol and not some sasaeng.

“actually...yes, i am. i’m so sorry, again, i had no idea they were gone. i wouldn’t have been so loud. but...could i wait in here, please? it’s a little cold,” she replied, a small chuckle escaping her lips. her ride wasn’t coming to pick her up for a few hours, and she’d burned her phone battery trying to frantically call. 

Whoa, is that LEE MINJI? I love her! You might know her as PIA. She’s the LEAD VOCAL of VICE, and she’s a ‘97 LINER! She’s one of my favorites under DIMENSIONS ENTERTAINMENT. Don’t you think she looks a little like HA SOOYOUNG (YVES)?