love / 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤.

“what! why are you surprised?” she laughs, taking a drink out of her glass. despite loving her chanel, prada and celine’s – serena is an avid supporter of local designers. there’s something more personal and intimate when wearing clothes from someone who puts every detail and thought into a garment in comparison to having a whole fashion house inputting their own ideas. and on top of that, she genuinely likes jessie’s designs. through her unintentionally promoting jessie’s clothes, they became great friends. keeping an amicable friendship throughout their careers. 

“i should be the one that’s grateful,” she grins. what’s better way to start off the holidays than having dinner with a close friend? “i better order the most expensive menu item then if that’s the case!” she teases, followed by a small laugh. “oh! before i forget – your christmas present.” handing her a bag with a neatly wrapped box. a few months ago, jessie and serena were window shopping and she remembered her friend glancing at this one particular chanel bag as serena was picking something up for her mom’s birthday. she took the liberty of purchasing it for her friend for christmas. “merry christmas!”

“ why do you think? because you don’t have to show me this much support, but you do it anyway.  friends or not, that’s still sweet of you.     ”    jessie leans back in her chair, tucking the cloth napkin over her lap snugly before looking back up at serena.  a lot of time has passed since serena first bought one of jessie’s pieces  (  which is honestly an embarrassment to jessie considering how much she’s grown as a designer  )  and in that time, becoming friends with the actress has been a gift that she isn’t quite sure how to express her appreciation for.  every time she sees her, she feels the need to thank her.

misun  prides  herself  on  knowing  when  to  shut  up,  when  tension  lingers  in  the  air  a  little  thicker  than  before  and  leaves  her  wondering  exactly  what  happened  to  put  one  of  her  closest  friends  in  a  mood  like  this.    gently,  she  puts  a  hand  on  his  shoulder  to  give  it  a  friendly  rub  before  smiling  at  him.    “ there’s  no  chance  of  me  abandoning  this  now,  i  don’t  think  i  could  leave  canada  if  i  tried.    i  just  can’t  help  but  thinking  about  what-if’s,  is  all.     maybe  there’s  another  sunny  and  woon  in  a  different  universe  that  are  happy  as  idols.     a  universe  where  they  aren’t  treated  the  way  they  are  here. ”    she  squeezes  his  shoulder  before  letting  go,  looking  down  at  her  watch  to  check  the  timer  on  the  cakes  in  the  oven.

“ hey,  speaking  of  happy.    i  saved  a  few  cupcakes  just  for  you,   if  you  want  them.     they’re  my  special  angel  food  recipe. ”

there are times that he gets anxious when people bring up the past, and there are others when he gets nostalgic, sad.  he supposes this is one of the latter times, especially because he’s around sunny  -  she reminds him of home after all, and with the memory of home comes everything that happened there.  it comes with the memory of parents that he left behind, the job he left behind; there is still a part of him that longs to be on the stage, and bringing it up with sunny only makes him remember that part of him, too.  but it’s inevitable really, that with the nostalgia comes the pain: all of the bad things that come with being an idol, and what the unfortunate circumstances of being in a smaller company could bring.  

sunny though, makes the most of it.  she tries to steer the conversation away, and he gives her a small smile of gratitude even as his hands twist together.    “     i think we’re both happier here, even though there’s  ...  always going to be that what if.     ”    he mumbles, nodding his head slowly.    “     another woon and another sunny, huh ..? it’d be nice if they were happier.  it’d be nice if that world was kinder.     ”

francesca’s aware she probably looks mad, lips turned into a frown, eyebrows drawn together, arms crossed over her chest. but mostly, mostly she just feels bitter, bitter and inexplicably hurt. she’s done this dance before, burned so many bridges by letting her feelings get the better of her, but still - still - she is caught off guard.

“ we’re done?? ” she repeats, her anger just now flaring up and threatening to take over. logically, she knows this is her own fault. she knows but that doesn’t make it easier to swallow, for her to accept. so she ignores it, she ignores everything but the fact that jessie had just effectively ended their entire friendship in just a few words. 

“ what is this, a break-up?? ” she laughs then, harsh, a little bit too forced, and takes a step back, a step back from jessie, from the situation, from her problems she refuses to address. “ you think it’s easy being your friend?? because it isn’t - wasn’t. so before you try and blame me for everything that went wrong, you should know you’re not all innocent. ” she’s lying now, pulling excuses out from nowhere, hoping to fight this someway so that she doesn’t have to admit to herself she’d fucked this up like she’d done so many times before.

this is just as uncomfortable for her as it is for francesca, even if it may not appear that way.  she’s hardly the type of person to want any drama, but francesca brings too much of it and enough is enough.  she’s fully aware that breaking off their friendship in this way is sure to turn some heads, to completely burn this bridge without question but jessie’s tired of feeling stifled.  she’s tired of feeling the pressure and buckling under the weight of francesca’s expectations to be her one and only friend.  

jessie has better things to do and a lot more people in her life than just one person.  francesca should know better.    “     yeah.     ”    she says simply, a neutral expression on her visage.  she can tell that cesca is getting angry, and it’d be better for her not to let her own temper slip.  that would only cause more trouble than all of this is worth.     “     i guess you can call it a breakup if you want.  i’m just not going to deal with this childishness anymore.     ”

there’s a clear divide on the public’s stance on love alarm. there’s the side that generally hates it and the ones who love it. nathan is on the clear side of hatred, but in order to take down an empire, you need to tear it down from within. and because his life has become so consumed with trying to demolish the inner workings of said app, his main points of conversation have unintentionally been focused on love alarm. 

he listens to woon, taking note of what he’s trying to say and understanding his position. nathan’s relieved that his friend can at least be truthful with him unlike a lot of other people. “no, it’s all good.” he assures. “uhhh, more like taking photos for someone in the badge club? i heard she’s a total nightmare to work with, but the pay is really good and i’m short on rent this month.”

the discomfort he feels isn’t something that’s easily expressed to someone who doesn’t know about his situation.  a lot of the time, woon worries if he comes off a little harsh or abrupt when talking about love alarm if only because it makes him tense.  he’s always looking over his shoulder, and it’s hard when he’s reminded of why at every turn.  it’s not nathan’s fault, though.  it’s no one’s fault except for the person who made him this way.  love alarm was just supposed to be something silly, a good way to feel accepted and loved.  it wasn’t supposed to be this for him.  he can’t blame others who haven’t had the same experiences.

she’s  never  met  somebody  that  radiates  the  same  energy  gray  does,  and  as  soon  as  she  met  him  she  knew  she  had  to  keep  him  in  her  life  somehow.    that’s  how  sunny  ended  up  here,  staring  cross-eyed  at  pink  frosting  on  her  nose  and  then  putting  on  her  best  disappointed  boss  face.    “ that  was  very  unprofessional  of  you,  gray.    i’m  disappointed  in  you. ”     of  course,  it’s  hard  to  take  her  seriously  with  the  smidge  of  icing  on  her  nose,  and  the  bright  smile  that  breaks  her  facade  as  a  giggle  slips  past  her  lips.    “ you  don’t  know  what  you’ve  just  started, ”    she  teases  back,  drags  two  fingers  through  the  icing  in  the  bowl  and  quickly  smearing  it  over  his  cheek.    “  this  is  war. ”

sunny looks hilarious with her eyes crossed.  that’s the first thought that crosses gray’s mind and it only makes him laugh some more, too loud to be polite but anything less just wouldn’t be gray.

          food dates are always the best. just like jessie, irene too digs into her food quickly without a care about what she looks like. comfort is something that comes easily with the other. ❛ trouble ? what, have you been hearing stuff about me ? ❜ it’s in a joking tone, but irene wouldn’t be surprised at all if something was spreading. art majors tend to gossip a lot, especially about each other. ❛ the only trouble i’m having is with you. why do you have to dress so nice ? i’m literally in sweats right now ! ❜

She could overhear anothers conversation, maybe it was because the girl was just giddy with the male before her. Seon-Mi tilted her head at their interaction. Was he someone important? she didn’t recognize him. Then again, she had to be reminded of the people she was to take photos with or even interact with. She took a seat on a bench nearby, needing to take a small break, her legs were aching.

‘i try not to get caught up in charity work for lost causes…’ the younger jokingly chastised, shooing the other’s hand away as he frantically worked to fix his hair. annoyed as he may act at times, kevin greatly valued his friendship with woon. though he loved the ladies, being around no one but his sister, mother, and rue most days made him especially desperate for some male camradery. woon was like the older brother he never had, and for that kevin was grateful. ‘hey!’ and now it was his turn to pout. ‘bribing me with food is not fair.’ 

𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊   was a pause as blue listened to the other speak, dark hues watching his companion intensely before turning back to the happy hour menu he had been perusing. the comment had been offhand & meant as a joke, but the siwoon’s reaction made it clear that this particular topic was not yet anything to poke fun at. while blue was known for his own personal series of fuck ups when it came to conversation, he genuinely had no interest in making someone else uncomfortable. his own career path was one that was often glamourised, but had deadly consequences. he had no doubt that the path of wanting to be an idol was no different. thus, he simply shrugged to show his lack of interest in the topic anymore.

“ i was kidding, really. that’s like someone asking me to just up & catwalk for them. i’m not doing it & i don’t expect you to break out in a full four minute choreography. now, did you want a drink? ”

he doesn’t like it.  the feeling of being scrutinized under those eyes, even though realistically woon knows blue isn’t like this.  but bring up anything from his past and he’s immediately on edge and suspicious  -  it’s hard.  he can’t help it, can’t help looking over his shoulder as a just in case.  blue doesn’t know and woon doesn’t think he’d ever tell him about all the things that he suffered as a trainee, but what he does know is that he should probably apologize.  after all, without knowing why, woon’s reaction was probably a little out of line.

that is, until mone koh comes along.

at first, woon fully expects a night alone, watching the new year specials on television or maybe even just going to sleep early.  after all, lately in the past few years or so a lot of events have started to revolve around love alarm, and that’s hardly the reminder he wants going into a new year.  a new part of his life, a new time of his life.  it’s already been several years since he uninstalled the app, but love alarm is still as prominent as ever and it’s threatening to inch ever closer to him in 2020 as well.  especially now that he’s reinstalled the app just to get vince to stop hounding him about it.

mone, though, is another story.  she’s bright and honest, with eyes that see through roses and a hope that stretches on for miles.  honestly, woon’s not so sure how she’s managed to stay so naive about an app so dangerous, but that’s hardly his business.  (  at least, not until she makes it his business.  )

again, he has to look at her and tell her no.  going to the love alarm event for new years is the last thing on his list of experiences he wants to try, but mone doesn’t take no for an answer.  and every time he has to tell her no, she sends him a look that pierces through his heart  -  like he’s hurting her personally somehow, by telling her that he’d rather stay at home.  (  if she keeps this up, he’s not sure how much longer he’ll be able to hold out.  )

“     mone  ...  i don’t even know how you got into the love alarm event, but i’m probably the last person you’d want to take.     ”    he says weakly, looking at her with pleading eyes.  because if she asks him one more time, he knows that he’ll inevitably give in.    “     i probably won’t even be a good date  ...  why does it have to be me?     ”