luvlyrv

You can't imagine a day without her, because she's always been there. Right from the day you could remember. You bet that she could be your last memory too.

Your first memory has you sitting in the living room playing with your toys as you anxiously eye the other child in the room. Some strangers had rung your doorbell and your mom and dad had welcomed them into the house. Now they were in the kitchen, their voices blending into each other in the background.

The small girl in front of you decided to take the liberty of picking up your toys and playing with them. She ran around playing in the imaginary world in her head. You think that she's having fun and that you want to have fun too, but you can't seem to move from your position. As you slowly try to build up the courage to talk to her she approaches you.

She had been glancing at you from the corner of her eyes too. She watched your shy self idly playing all alone. She found it hard to approach you, scared of you pushing her away or being mean, but she thought maybe it was worth it. You could be a friend.

"Hi!" The strange girl is right in front of you with one of your stuffed toys in hand. "Do you want to play with me? I'm Seulgi!"

"I'm Y/N…"

For the rest of the hour the two of you chased each other in a shared adventure. Enraptured in your own little wonderland until your parents had to pull you apart.

Soon it became a ritual for those strangers, who you later learned to be Mr. and Mrs. Kang, to visit your house. Along them was always their daughter Seulgi, who wouldn't hesitate to pull you into a large hug right before starting a new adventure with you.

You slightly trail behind your best friend. You smile at yourself from the sight of Seulgi happily skipping, somehow filled with even more vigor than she usually has. She's always been filled with much more energy than you, amazed by even the smallest of things. You suppose something truly spectacular must be happening today for her to feel so extra. She turns her head over to look at you, flashing you her perfect smile with her perfect cheeks. The ones you always want to squish when you remind her of how cute she is.

She continues to bounce but slows down to be by your side. One of the favorite parts of your day, and hopefully hers too, would be the peaceful walk the two of you would always share before and after school. It always reminded you of how close you are. How you can always rely on her to listen and to brighten up your day.

She bites her lip while still smiling. She must be thinking about something.

"What's got you so excited today?" You ask her with a giggle.

"Guess!" She pesters leaning into you. A familiar feeling emerges in your chest from the contact.

"You know I'm really bad at guessing…"

"Well why can't you try?"

"All I know is that it has to be something really special, right?" You decide to lean back and push her a little as a tease.

"It is! Mom and dad bought me my favorite ice cream that we can share later today!"

You laugh at her as she continues giving her dumb smile. Seulgi moves in front of you with her eyebrows raised, waiting to hear your opinion about the news.

"Is that it?" You ask still laughing. She pouts a little.

"What do you mean 'is that it'? It's my favorite! And I get to share it with you!" With that you pull Seulgi in for a side hug.

"I'm kidding, I'm excited too."

You enjoy listening to whatever nonsense Seulgi thinks about and decides to spill to you as you guys continue walking. You feel a bit disheartened at the sight of the school building, but looking at Seulgi again is enough to make the disappointment go away.

As much as you wish it did, your schedule wasn't entirely with your best friend. Instead you had to split up as you entered the school grounds to your different classes. Fortunately you shared at least some classes with her, and most importantly lunch. So when you sit down at your desk with nobody talking to you, you don't feel too lonely. The anticipation of being reunited with Seulgi was enough for you.

As usual Seulgi finds your figure sitting down at a lunch table and immediately rushes towards you. She taps your shoulder as she sits down, hurriedly opening up her lunch box, her beastly appetite striking again.

"Oooh." She oogles as the both of you breathe in the sudden aroma of homemade food. You peer over to look at the contents of her lunch box. You swore that you can see the steam coming off of her rice.

"Open up!" Seulgi playfully demands of you. You oblige as she not so carefully throws a grape your way. It would've been lost if you didn't move your head to make up for the completely inaccurate trajectory.

"How are you still bad at this?" You ask her after chewing.

"Maybe I just like to see you work for your food." You laugh at her response as you carefully pick up a spring roll from your box and place it in hers.

"Mom fried it this morning so you better enjoy."

You enjoy the long-time tradition of sharing food and eating in relative silence. That time was short lived though as a small group of girls joined your table. You didn't mind them much, you'd even consider them casual friends. At the same time though, they were bothering you.

You found it strange that despite finally being with Seulgi you felt so lonely. So lost.

Seulgi's popular, you know that. A lot of people try to befriend her and fight for her attention. Being the social butterfly she is she never hesitated to say hello back and return the friendliness. By proxy you met a lot of nice people, a lot of not so nice people, and more. They never really stuck by for you though. They stayed for Seulgi.

You wish you understood why you were so bothered by those that stayed. Why you were always feeling jealous recently. You wonder if it's natural to feel so intensely sick when you watch your best friend's attention be pulled away by several different girls at a time, or laugh at a guys joke. Well, maybe you do know why.

You quietly sigh and push the thought away, instead trying to join in the chatter and laugh with everyone at the table. Just as you were about to calm down and ease into the group a sudden large group of guys and girls approach. One boy in particular seems to be leading the pack. You purse your lips as you silently watch them come over. Seulgi absent-mindedly continues talking, completely unaware of what was about to occur.

You tighten your hands into a ball as a feeling bubbles inside you. You can't place what it is. Is it fear? Anger? Jealously? It's probably both.

The boy also tightens his hands as they grip onto his shirt. You watch him bite his lip and see how a red color crawls up his neck and reaches the tips of his ears. You hold in a breath as he finally arrives at the table and Seulgi looks up at him.

"S-Seulgi." He barely manages to say her name aloud.

"Huh?" She looks at him cluelessly but gives him her full attention anyways.

"I like you! A lot! So if you can, please go out with me!" The boy's words spill out, as if his mouth was a floodgate holding them back. He reaches behinds him and quickly bends over to give Seulgi a piece of red paper, shaped like a heart. He probably wrote about his feelings extensively on it.

Your eyes had been focused on the love-stricken boy. It's hard for you to move your eyes towards Seulgi. You realize now what you're feeling. You fear what you'll see when you look over at Seulgi to see her reaction.

You notice that she's red too, the color slowly blossoming across her cheeks.

Why does this hurt you?

"Erm, ah, thank you." She says out of politeness and bows back. She gives him a smile and that seems to excite him. "I'll think about your confession."

He eagerly nods his head and leaves the table, happy with the results of his actions. The crowd around him seem to think that was a good ending and started whispering and congratulating him. You look back at your table and the girls are murmuring too.

"He's cute, you should definitely go for him!"

"I heard he treated his last girlfriend nicely. They're still on good terms."

"I've never seen you date before. Isn't now your time to explore?"

Seulgi just takes it all in and nods along with what they say. Your head hangs low as you pick at your food. You don't dare look up. You're scared of seeing Seulgi's face again. You're scared that tears will start falling.

It was like the weight of the world had fallen on your chest.

When the bell dismisses you from lunch you quickly go to your next class. You don't say goodbye to Seulgi or any of the other girls. You feel the light graze of Seulgi's fingertips as she tries to stop you, but you're too fast.

The rest of the school day is you trying to focus on studying, and when your last class finishes you're not sure what you'll do. Everybody leaves the classroom before you as you take some time for yourself. Breathing in and out, you mentally prepare yourself to face Seulgi, as if she was some type of monster.

As you exit the building and get near the gates you see a swarm of people with Seulgi in the center. They're probably there to ask about how she feels about the confession that happened. You sigh and almost contemplate leaving without her, but her eyes quickly find yours. Seulgi politely but abruptly says her goodbyes and runs towards you.

As Seulgi's figure grows nearer there's a feeling of satisfaction. It was like you had won some petty fight, and that feeling was able to erase the fear and nerves you had earlier. A smile grows on your face she reaches your side, your bodies automatically matching your steps. You enjoy the warmth when she locks her arm with yours. Not knowing what to say, you let silence fill the space in between the two of you until Seulgi decided to break it.

"So, do you wanna stay at my place for a bit so we can eat that ice cream?"

Seulgi's keys jingle as she unlocks her front door. You follow in after her, putting your shoes away as she dashes towards her refrigerator to retrieve the ice cream from the freezer. You walk up towards her as she hands one to you. Naturally, both of you make your way outside into her backyard.

Her backyard is quaint, housing a nice garden that her mother often tends and one large tree. The two of you rest under it, appreciating the winding arms of the apple tree that has always given you and Seulgi refuge. You enjoy the taste of the ice cream, perhaps the shade was enhancing its flavor. Either way you understood why its Seulgi's favorite. The refreshing taste and Seulgi's presence puts a smile on your face. You feel yourself opening up again as you guys joke and talk about your day in between bites and licks. By the time you finish eating your ice cream she had managed to convince you that she needed your extra help in math. As always you agreed to tutor her.

She argues that you should stay underneath the tree as she gets up to throw away the trash. You watch as she goes back inside the house, coming out again with a shiny apple in hand that was picked only a couple days ago. You laugh a little as you ask,

"Still hungry?"

"Enough for a little snack."

She sits by you and takes a rest on your lap. You brush her hair away as you look into her eyes. You can tell she's thinking about something.

"What's wrong?" You ask her.

"Well, I was just wondering, why were you upset earlier?" She says in a serious tone.

"Huh?"

"You didn't even say goodbye at lunch, and don't pretend I didn't notice you almost leaving without me." There's a hint of hurt in her voice. You feel bad for not keeping your emotions in check better, that you threw a fit over something so small.

"Well," Your voice trails off as your mind struggles to think of a response, "what does that boy mean to you?" You decide to ask.

"Oh so now you want to know about that too?" There's only a slight annoyance in her voice as she gives you an eyeroll.

"I'm your best friend, of course I'm curious." Seulgi huffs at your response. She can't blame you for wondering so she takes a moment to think before answering honestly.

"I mean, I guess they weren't wrong. He's kinda cute, and I know it took a lot for him to say that to me. I admire him for it." She said it in a casual manner, as if it wasn't a big deal. Yet for you it meant everything. And it hurt.

You can't control the frown that found its way on your face.

"Hey…" Seulgi quickly gets up from your lap. She has a confused expression as her eyes scans yours. "Hey, what's wrong?" Her voice is soft as she puts a hand on your shoulder.

Your chest is about to explode.

"Do you like him or something?" She continues to grip onto your shoulder with a confused face. She thinks she was the one who did something wrong. That she's stealing someone away from you, but that was so different from the truth.

"No, Seulgi, I-" You pause to think about what you're going to say. Something was about to come out instinctively, and you don't know whether or not that was the best decision.

"You what?"

She presses you for an answer but you're still thinking. You're thinking about you know you can't handle her possibly being close to someone else. To share all of her laughs with that boy. To smile at him and spend time with him. To do all the things that exists between you and her. Living would feel wrong if you were no longer the one she ran to and spilled her secrets to.

Who are you if not Seulgi's biggest and only confidant? The only one who could soothe her in her darkest moments? The one who understands every feeling and thought just by the way she blinks?

You're intimately familiar with the feeling in your chest now. You think that you know what it is too, but that doesn't make you hate it any less. If you could, you'd sacrifice every fiber of your being to forget that feeling and throw it away. To pretend it doesn't exist. But your wishes don't make it go away.

You can be dishonest with yourself, but it's impossible to lie to Seulgi. Not when she looks at you like that.

"I like you."

The words are barely a whisper but she hears. Seulgi's hand falls off your shoulder and you want to cry again. You said the wrong thing. She was going to think you're disgusting. She would never go on a walk with you again. You'll never smell her perfume again. You'll never hear her laughter again. She'd never touch you again. Never speak to you again.

Her mouth is open slack. Your eyes water and you breathe in, readying yourself to apologize profusely. To rescind the blasphemous words that slipped out of your foul mouth.

"I'm so sorry. Just ignore it. I take it back. I think I'm sick or something, you know, delirious. Just ignore it please. Please." Tears begins to fall down your face as Seulgi seemingly snaps back to reality. She reaches towards you, taking your face in her hands as her thumbs swipe away the tears.

"Oh my god, no, don't cry." She begs you to stop, but you can't.

"I-I'm, I'm sorry." The tears continue to make their way down your face. A horrible sickness wells in your stomach and suddenly it feels below freezing as you shake uncontrollably.

"No, don't be." She hugs you tight and whispers in your ear. "I like you too. So stop crying. For me, please." She strokes your back as you cry, hoping that the touch could settle you down.

It takes a while for you to register what she says, but as soon as you do your body seizes up. You think that maybe your everything, your soul, has shattered into a million pieces from Seulgi's words. How in the world could it be true? It couldn't be, not in this universe, not in this timeline.

Yet it was.

When Seulgi hears your sniffling stop and your body letting go of its tension she separates her body from yours. Her eyes are all you can see, and all you can see in them is pain.

"I'm sorry for making you worried." You felt guilty that she had to see you cry. The outburst at school wasn't great either.

"Don't worry about it" She reassures you by taking a hand in hers, stroking it with her delicate fingers to show you her affection. For several moments you allow yourself to breathe. Seulgi also took the time to process everything, and the two of you stared at each other with the new understanding of your feelings. Time seems to pass so slowly when you observe each other with care.

"Seulgi…" You mumble when what felt like years passed. She understood what you meant when she saw the way you looked at her lips.

In that moment you couldn't care anymore. Neither could Seulgi, it seemed, as you pressed your lips on hers and she pressed back. Greedily, the two of you dived in for a taste. Your lips on hers, her tongue in your mouth, it was something you needed. It was a flavor you could relish forever, perhaps this is what sin tasted like. Yes, this is what they'd call it. A sin.

It feels like everything has changed, but at the same time it hasn't. You still spend every second possible with Seulgi. You spend your time doing the same things. Yet everything feels so different, it feels brand new. Magically, it feels better than before. Is this the power that Seulgi has over you?

Nobody knows, nobody needs to know. After all, you're still Seulgi's bestfriend. Is there really anything different? Maybe just the tighter hugs, the kisses, and the alluring smiles, but that's all. Life is easy this way.

After bidding Seulgi goodbye in front of her house you go home to eat dinner with your family. You come home and greet your parents with a smile as you rush to join them at the dinner table. They share that smile as they take note of your enthusiasm recently. As you eat quietly for a while your mom finally asks you what's been going on to make you shine so much.

"Well..." You debate on what to say. It's been over a month since you confessed to Seulgi but you were still feeling high. You've been holding it for so long you wished you could tell someone. Why not them? You want them to be happy with you too. "I've been dating Seulgi."

"Hm?" Your mom asks you somewhat aggressively for clarification. The sudden stillness in the air alarms you. You look up from your food to see your mom staring as your dad stops eating.

"I-I told her I liked her and she liked me back." You say hoping to clear whatever confusion was occuring. Yet the look on your parents didn't fade.

"What happened?" You father's question sounds more like a statement as he sternly places his utensils down.

"What do you mean what happened? I just told you."

"What happened to make you like this?" His cold voices breaks a little as you notice his eyes tearing up. Was he seriously upset about this?

"You're joking, right?" Your mom joins in with an angry tone.

"Of course I'm not. Mom, she makes me really happy." You struggle to keep yourself composed under the scrutiny of both of your parents.

"Y/N. You are not happy. You're messing with the devil right now and he's fucking up your mind."

"Have you not been doing your prayers?"

You can barely fight for yourself at the dinner table. Your parents argue with and over you, about the causes and the whys. About the signs and what happens next. You cry as you watch your decision unfold into your nightmare.

You knew deep down inside this would happen, but you hoped and prayed that it wasn't true. Perhaps Seulgi made you too happy, too brave. Everything else felt like it was going right so you convinced yourself this would too. You've flown too close to the sun and it backfired. You should've never said anything.

As you try to block out the fight unraveling in front of you you could only scream one thing while crying. "Wouldn't God want to love me? Wouldn't He want you to love me too?"

The scrape of the wooden chair echos as your mom shoots up straight. "I will not house some heathen under my roof. Get out until you realize what you've done to this family."

It's raining. The relentless torrent of water against your body traps in the coldness from the night, leaving you shivering as your feet move on their own. They move to the only other place that feels like home. The only other person that feels like home.

Soon enough you find yourself in front of a familiar door, incessantly knocking. Muffled footsteps come from the other side of the door as you hear locks being undone until the door finally opens. Instantly there's a look of worry on Mr. Kang's face as he takes in the scene in front of him. He quickly ushers you in and shuts the door.

"Who is it?" A voice rings from upstairs.

"It's Y/N!" Mr. Kang yells back, and soon enough you hear a flurry of footsteps coming downstairs. Seulgi, in her tired glory, appears. She rushes towards you as her father went off to find you some towels to dry off with.

"Oh my god, what happened? Why are you here? Are you okay?" Seulgi's honey eyes are glistening with worry. She doesn't seem to care too much about the fact that you're soaked as she embraces you in a hug. Her body soothes you, its warmth penetrating the cold, wet clothes that clung to your body. You let her ground you back to reality before speaking.

"I don't wanna talk about it right now." You barely manage to get the words out. Your throat feels tight, constricted. Throughout the entire time the tears haven't stopped running down your face as it mixed with the rain water. Seulgi rubs your back as her father comes back. Both of them begin patting you dry.

It feels a bit pathetic as you have two people fretting over you so much, but you're too tired to move. Maybe not even tired, but rather stuck in your own thoughts.

"Go get her something to change into. Are you gonna stay the night?" Her dad asks after making Seulgi go back upstairs to find clothes. You just nod in response and follow her.

When you enter Seulgi's room you find her hastily going through her drawers, finding something comfortable for you to wear. After digging through her clothes she hands you some sweatpants and an oversized shirt, much like her own outfit she was sporting. Your hands are in front of you and holding onto the clothing, yet you still can't seem to move much. Instead your lips tremble as you look at the floor. Seulgi sighs as she nears you, unfolding the clothes and looking at your trembling hands.

"Don't make me dress you." She half-teases. When she realizes you can't will yourself to move a grim line stretches across her face. She wonders what has gotten you so riled up to act this way.

Carefully, she removes your clothes and throws them into the laundry pile. Her fingers innocently skim your body as she puts on the clothes for you, with you doing the minimal movements required to help her. Over the years she's already been more than familiar with your body, and the same for you with her touch. Although you can't vocalize it you silently appreciate the care and intimacy she demonstrates.

Soon enough she finishes though and pulls you towards her bed. Sitting you down she places herself behind you after grabbing a dry towel. She begins to dry your hair while letting you stay silent. Another thing you appreciated about her. She let you take your time.

"Seulgi..." Your voice croaks out as if you've aged several decades.

"Yes?" She stops drying off your hair, instead placing the towel down as she wraps her arms behind you and leans forward.

"They know." She doesn't say anything but her body is still for a minute. Afterwards she finishes drying off your hair, at least one of you can stay calm in this situation. That's what you need. "They told me to come back when I come to my senses."

"It's okay. Everything will be okay. We'll figure something out." You let her guide you down on her bed. Your crying had stopped a while back, but the shock coursing through your body didn't. As Seulgi pulled up the sheets and began to hold you you turned around and looked at her. You looked into the eyes that told you everything. Right now they told you that all Seulgi had on her mind was you.

So you think that you should only think of Seulgi too, because you can always forget about the consequences when you're with her. With a kiss on your forehead she tells you to sleep. She gets impossibly closer to you, holding you tight. Holding you as if you are her treasure.

The familiar trees and houses enter your view as you drive down your childhood neighborhood. Your fingers tap on the steering wheel as you listen to the song Seulgi played in the car. Out of the corner of your eye you see her smile at the thought of visiting her parents. It's enough to make you happy as well.

As you near her parent's house you pass by your own. It's been years since you've been inside, years since you even saw it. You're okay with it though, but your mind still wonders how your parents are doing. You wonder if the house is lonelier now, if they ever think about the sparse letters and phone calls you have exchanged and how they always were fights. Do they know you and Seulgi are coming to visit? Will they want to see you?

Whatever the answer is it doesn't matter. The only family you have to worry about is the girl right next to you and her parents. You feel thankful that she's your first love and hopeful that she's your last. Despite how many times your lives have separated you two, how you both dated other people and had your own quarrels, you guys came back to each other in the end. She changed you during your formative years and supported you as the two of you have grown up.

after your confession with wendy you were stuck with an enormous burst of energy

you were on cloud nine, a seemingly never-ending high

you decided not to text wendy the day right after

you didn't want her to think you regretted anything but you also didn't want to seem too clingy

also it didn't help that just thinking about her was enough to throw you into cardiac arrest

you didn't receive any notifications from wendy either

it was a bit disappointing, but you assumed she was also trying to take in the shock of it all

trying to take your mind off of wendy you spend an entire day running around your house

you pick up your instruments and have the jam of your life

emotional highs are very good for your creativity it seems

you decide to record some things and save some drafts

who knows if it'll be useful in the future?

you worked till you felt dead tired and like you couldn't have another thought in your brain

even after you spent an entire day trying to exert your nervous and elated energy you were still hesitating on texting wendy when you woke up

but you missed her so much already

so you send a text asking her how she feels

she says she feels okay, and then asks about you

'yeah, i'm okay too'

your conversation was rocky

things weren't going as smooth as before

and it was evident that it was because the both of you had no idea how to behave

you took a deep breath before texting her your question

'so, can i take you on that first date?'

you see a bubble showing that she was texting

and then it disappeared

before showing up again

and disappearing

and- ugh! your heart was racing waiting for her answer

i mean, she liked you back right? so why would she say no?

'yeah, of course! :)'

whew, okay, looked like you almost made a big deal out of nothing

little did you know wendy was freaking out

she was a bit embarrassed at herself, acting as if she was a high school kid in love or something

it took wayyy too much concentration for her to type out something sensible

but she was excited for you to finally ask

you were also excited for her to say yes

your first date is at the downtown center

there was a festival and you were hoping to enjoy all the effort the artisans put into their work with wendy

you're walking with her through the numerous stalls set up

as the both of you admire the beautiful crafts set on display your hand reaches for hers

you feel the pressure of her hand squeezing back and you look at her

she looks at you and giggles

you didn't even realize what you were doing

'oh, i'm sorry. i didn't mean to do that suddenly.' you freak out and let go of her hand

you're worried that she was laughing at you and that she didn't want to hold hands

'it's okay! i thought it was cute'

she reaches out for you and you don't let go this time

instead you enjoy how happy she seems to be sharing this moment with you

and out in public too

later on you both go to the square where there were musicians

the sun was beginning to set, allowing for beautiful lighting and you appreciated songs you've never listened to before

wendy tugs at your arm while still staring at the performers

'i hope we can perform up there someday. together.'

you smile at her as she still looks on

'i think we will.' you assure her

finally night hits and you both call it a day

you walk her to her car and stop her

you kiss her forehead

'so, will there be a second?' you ask with a smile

you feel like you already know the answer

'i think that sounds great.'

life with wendy in it became easy

you guys seldom fought

and even when you did at least one of you would make something for the other

dropping it off at the doorstep and leaving an apology note

and after enough time of cooling down you would always come back to each other, talking out your problems from before

you personally felt like your work improved as well

wendy had become your muse

you sought to create tracks that would impress her

or that would be worthy of having her voice in it

and you felt like it was easier to write lyrics

because every experience with wendy created new feelings

feelings that you could hardly describe sometimes

when you guys decided to finally start working on your second collaboration you busted out the drafts you created long ago

wendy was impressed after sitting down and listening to your drafts

'woah, how many hidden gems do you have on your computer?'

'well, these ones in particular i made on the same day. the day after i confessed to you.'

you're both flustered

because it's easy to tell the kind of state you were in by the songs

wendy takes your hand and kisses it gently as your music continued to play

'you must think of me pretty highly, if the thought of me compelled you to make something so incredible'

you heat up at her cheesiness

'oh stop it.'

the two of you end up choosing a refreshing feeling/sound for the album

'cause you recharge me every time i see you!' she says

when you guys are almost done producing the album, that was when you went on the dinner date with wendy

the one where you guys would finally confess to the world

after recording and uploading the announcement video the both of you decided to turn off your notifications and avoid reading people's reactions

instead you guys opted to spend the rest of the day baking and then watching a movie together

the both of you decided that it would be stressful to engage with your audience right away, and that's why it took a full day for you both to check your phones again

both seulgi and yeri already knew about your relationship but they both flooded you guys with congratulations anyways

they just wanted you to know they were proud of your bravery!

besides them, both of your families already knew and didn't comment much

they'd already stated how they think you're good for each other when you guys had visited together

especially your younger cousin

cause apparently she's a big fan of wendy and is definitely not using you as a way to get close to her idol

and is definitely not bragging about her how cousin is 'super super cool and famous and is dating another famous person and i think they'll be rich someday!!! so get on my nice side!'

you're happy to see that a lot of fans are happy for your relationship

wendy just keeps telling you 'of course they are, who wouldn't for a cute ass couple like us?'

it was at that point that you guys had decided to save up and move into a nice place together

you guys had talked about future plans before

not only that, but you had been practically living together already

between all the dates that lead to seemingly indefinite sleepovers

and the recent collaboration that made you guys be stuck together

it was really you guys living at each other's place weeks at a time

when you guys move in you're grateful

because you get to experience all the little things from her even more

some nights when you're stressed she rubs circles on your back to help you sleep

when you guys shower together she takes her time to carefully wash your hair

it was those deeply intimate moments that made you the happiest

both of your careers were doing really well due to the reception of your second collab and all the media fuss that happened with your dating annoucement

you both still have solo careers and interact with other musicians

but along with moving in, you guys decided to become a duo and consistently create music together

"Sorry, I guess today was a bad day to have a date huh?" You use your free arm to scratch the back of your head, feeling a bit guilty that you made your girlfriend go out with you when it was so cold.

"No such thing as a bad day if it's with you." Wendy responds confidently while looking at you. Even though she's also wearing a scarf that covers the lower part of her face, you can tell that she's giving you her signature cheeky smile by her eyes. You roll your eyes at her and push her a little as the two of you continue to walk.

"You're too bold sometimes, it's embarrassing…"

"I can't help that you make me this way!"

"Oh stop it." You laugh aloud. As you get closer and closer to your destination you look down and pull a small camera out of your pocket. You fumble with it for a second to check if the battery was full and if you had enough storage left. With the camera in order you decide to ask Wendy, "Are you nervous?"

"Nervous about what? Filming?"

"Yeah, but I guess more specifically filming and… openly showing people us. You know? Like how we really act and think about each other…" With your question she decides to take a moment and ponder.

"No, because we're really cute together, and if they judge our relationship it doesn't really matter." You accept her answer, thinking she would leave it at that, except after a second she starts talking again. "Well, okay, maybe I am a bit nervous. Not because of them judging us or anything but… I don't know. I really want to show you off and show how happy we are together. It's just a little bit weird to do it to such a large audience, you know?" You nod your head to her answer.

"I get that, and honestly if you want we don't have to do the reveal now. So I guess what I'm really asking is, are you sure you're okay with this?"

You feel Wendy's head nod against your shoulder in confirmation. With that the two of you stop in front of a large, modern looking restaurant. You open the door for Wendy and enter in after her, feeling relieved with the blast of nice, warm air.

Wendy goes ahead and briefly talks to a server to confirm your reservation. The server, a young and friendly looking man, escorts the both of you to a secluded booth.

As soon as you're seated with Wendy and given menus you take out your camera and start filming. You point the camera at Wendy as she smiles and waves. You chuckle when Wendy decided to go the extra mile and started making hearts and blowing kisses at the camera.

"Hi," you begin to say as you redirect the camera towards you, "have you missed me? or I guess us and our antics? Sorry I took a short hiatus without saying anything. It's just that once again, Wendy and I have been planning a surprise!"

"I might as well use this as an opportunity to say sorry to my fans as well! I swear we've both been working hard." Wendy adds on. Before you continue you consider the placement of the camera.

"Hmmm, honestly, I don't like the way we're sitting." You admit and decide to move to sit next to Wendy instead of across from her. "Don't you think this is better? This way both of us are in frame, I think it's weird to keep hearing your voice if you aren't gonna be on the video."

"Yeah, this probably looks better." Wendy laughs in front of the camera. Suddenly you feel something warm on your thigh as Wendy's hand rests there out of habit.

"Anyways, should we just announce everything we have in mind now?" You look towards your girlfriend instead of the camera, wanting her opinion.

"I mean, we might as well instead of dragging it along right?" You nod your head to her response and look back to the camera with a smile.

"Well first of all, we're having a collab together again! Working together has been a lot of fun and since the first one received such great reception it was just the obvious thing to do." Wendy's hand moves from your thigh to link with yours. You smile just a bit brighter as you raise your hands up so the camera. "Almost as obvious as it was for us to get together." The both of you suddenly become giggly with excitement. Officially saying it aloud to the world was strange to say the least. A feeling of relief as well as one of pride filled you. With the announcement Wendy choose to more openly cling to your body.

"I mean, was it though? I feel like you could've admitted your feelings faster or something…" Wendy sarcastically asks you.

"Why's the responsibility on me? I feel like I was obvious about my feelings."

"Well I thought I was obvious too! You totally didn't pick up on it."

"Does that mean we're both just dumb?"

"Yeah, probably." With her blunt answer you can't help but to chuckle and very proudly give her a quick kiss on the lips. As soon as you pulled away Wendy retaliated by cupping your face while giving you a flurry of kisses.

"Ewww stop it, you're so gross." You give her a final kiss back before jokingly pushing her away to readdress the camera. "Anyways we've been dating for 6 months now. We're both really wanting to take it seriously and that's why we're announcing it to you all. Uhm… sorry for not revealing earlier I guess."

"We both just wanted to see how things turned out and to also have time to explore our relationship without external pressure from having it be public to fans." Wendy chimes in.

"Things have been going well though, so we decided to share this really happy moment of our lives with you guys. I mean personally, I'm quite happy to tell the whole world that I have the Wendy Son as my girlfriend." You say with an eyeroll and hand on your chest. Wendy hums a bit before talking again.

"Well, I guess it's been okay having Y/N be my girlfriend."

The both of you have fun together as always, just this time with an additional camera to capture all the moments of your relationship. Both the romantic and unromantic. You were thankful that the restaurant was busy so you weren't the only loud patrons, but also for the fact that you were in a secluded enough place where other people didn't hear you. With the warm food on the table and the warm personality of your partner you felt a sense of fulfillment. Life felt amazing in that moment and you wanted to cling onto it forever.

As you guys finish up dinner the server comes by again to drop off the bill and hand back the receipt. As you get the receipt back though a look of shock plastered itself on Wendy's face.

"What happened?" You ask a bit worried. For a second you were scared that the bill would be something ridiculous. Wendy simply showed the receipt to the camera.

"Do you guys see this? Dear lord… " After a while you take the receipt out of her hand to look at it yourself and you almost want to burst out laughing.

"He… he…" You do end up laughing as you look at how the server wrote down his number for Wendy with a winky face. She laughs with you for a bit until you calmed down and got a hold of yourself. "Wow, that's real cute of him. Although I'm kind of offended he didn't direct it towards me. Am I not cute enough?"

"You're plenty cute, babe." Wendy says with a kiss on your cheek to reassure you. The two of you organized your table a bit so that the server would have an easier time cleaning after you left. When you reached the lobby and neared the doors you saw the young server once again. He stared at Wendy and tried to send her a flirty wink, but a subtle burst of jealousy and possessiveness made you link arms with her and kiss her on the lips. When you looked back at him you laughed at his look of shame.

The soft click of the door warns you as Wendy's heavenly face appears in front of you. Your hands feel clammy and your eyes want to look everywhere but her, yet it seems like Wendy doesn't notice. You're glad that maybe you can pretend that everything's okay.

"Hey, you ready to sing?" She asks as she lets you inside her house once more. You give her a joking bow in response.

"Oh, it would be an honor." You get back up and begin following her towards her room filled with recording equipment. "I've been rehearsing and already warmed up before coming here."

"I expect nothing less from the great Y/N. I'm glad you came prepared, we can finish up quickly then and can hang out afterwards. Only if you have the time and want to, of course." You scoff at her sentiment, leaving her surprised for a second before you spoke.

"Of course I'd want to. I'd clear up my schedule any day for you." You accidentally let your thoughts slip out of your mouth. You internally freeze up for a second, worried about Wendy's reaction to your words. She doesn't seem to react much, although you feel like you caught a strange type of glance from her for just a millisecond. She brings you to her room with an extra chair already pulled up by the microphone. She checks her camera for a second and reviews the lighting on the screen. With a thumbs up she lets you sit down.

The two of you are facing each other with the microphone in between. With shared earphones you hear music entering one of your ears as the instrumental begins. You allow yourself to feel the song and enter the right mood, trying to prepare yourself to convey emotions through your voice. As you immerse yourself in the feelings the song you nod your head. Wendy does the same and you can't help but smile at the sight of her. You think about the serene type of beauty she holds while in a focused state.

When she softly breathes out the first note you're instantly mesmerized. Your eyes are locked on her lips, thinking about the pretty sounds coming out of her pretty mouth. You feel your face taking on a feverish heat, but focus on the song as you begin adlibbing and harmonizing with her. By the time your solo part begins everything fell into place in your mind, singing came easily to you.

You look at Wendy and just let everything out. You didn't even have to try as you poured your heart out for the performance. Considering the fact that the song you chose to cover was a love song (to keep with the theme of your upcoming mini-album, of course), the only effort you had to put in was thinking about Wendy.

Never had you heard anything sweeter. Never had you heard your heart beating harder in your chest.

And just like that the music had stopped. You finished singing, yet you were still staring straight on at Wendy. She was staring back.

Maybe the week you had gone without seeing her turned you mad. Maybe it was because of atmosphere the song created. Either way you didn't know what overcame you when you started leaning in. Your approach was slow, not wanting to startle her or force her in. Time felt like it was moving so slow and you were beginning to regret your choice. That was until you saw that she was staring at your lips too.

You learn that her kisses are just as sweet as her voice. One chaste kiss, just as a test. Then another and another. At that point you involuntarily smile at the plush feeling of her lips. You feel Wendy smile back, and all of a sudden you're lost in her soft bedsheets as she pulls you away and pushes you down on her bed.

You're surprised at her boldness, especially when you started feeling her tongue against your lips. With her on top of you and with her soft hands cupping your face, the two of you allow yourselves to enjoy the sudden intimacy you shared. The tender exchange continued for what felt like years until you broke apart. With Wendy's hands still on your face you both stared at each other star-struck. You quickly miss the warm feeling of her lips on yours but you don't complain.

"Uhm, does that mean that you like me?" You say while trying to catch your breath, a grin forming on your face.

"Oh my god, yes." Wendy rolls her eyes and rests on top of you. She decides to lay against your chest and listen to your erratic heartbeat gradually slowing down. You're not sure how to respond, or what to say in a situation like this. All you know is that you enjoy the comfort of her body on top of yours. The peace that she seems to give you. The both of you can't stay that way forever though, and you end up breaking the silence with a question.

"What are we now, then?"

"What do you want us to be?"

"Don't dodge my question like that." Wendy lightly giggles at your response.

"Sorry. I mean, well, you can take me on a date. And then you can take me to another one if that goes well, and then another and another…" You nod at her answer as she gently answered, her voice quietly trailing off as she thought to herself. With her head still on your chest you crane your neck to look at her.

"I have a good feeling our date is going to go well. The real question is though, how in the world did I score someone like you?"

"With your cooking of course."

You're back at home lying on your bed as you reminisce about the hours you ended up spending with Wendy. Her smell is still stuck on your shirt from never letting go of you. There's a tingle on your lips that grows stronger whenever you think of her again. You already miss the weight of her body on yours. As your mind blissfully remembers every moment the pinging from your phone wouldn't stop.

You stretch out your body to reach your phone from the nightstand and check Twitter. For a while you forgot that Wendy finished editing the cover video and posted it already. Your fans couldn't let you truly forget though as they blew up your notifications.

After reading through some of the comments you decided to playback the video. It was true that you guys were... very intensely staring at each other. You felt a bit flustered while watching, since in hindsight the two of you were probably thinking the same thing. Feeling the same strange mix of emotions.

You've known her to be a warm person, always friendly and comforting. You hope you're not reading into things too much, but sometimes you read her messages and your heart skips a beat. The way she would talk about you would make you flustered. It would force you to put your phone down for a second, unable to comprehend the positivity. Then the thought that maybe she was flirting would creep into your head.

The idea that you're just imagining things always comes back to fight it though.

Shaking your head you decide not to contemplate the idea further. After all she was going to come over soon and you needed to focus on finishing your songs. Thinking about any possible romantic feelings was the last thing you wanted to do. Especially with her in front of you.

Luckily the thoughts dissipate as you zone into the work in front of you, scrutinizing every detail you possibly could. You let yourself sink into the feeling of the songs, letting it help guide your decisions in mixing. As quickly as you get focused though, you're broken out of your zone when you hear knocking on the door. Before answering you run to the mirror and take a quick look while trying to make sure you look presentable. When you rush up to the door to open it you act like nothing happened.

"H-hello! Welcome again to my humble abode!" You say it with a smile, trying to suppress the sudden fluttering feeling in your stomach.

"Hey!" She says while looking up and down at you. "Looks like we're accidentally matching today, huh?" Wendy walks past the door and you close it behind her. You take a moment to look at her outfit and then at yours. The both of you had a very blue color palette.

"Well, way to steal the spotlight. You look way cuter than me." You don't sound as confident as you'd like, your voice bordering on the softer and quieter side. You realize you haven't felt this nervous in a while.

"As if that could ever be possible!" Wendy turns her head back at you as she walks towards your room. She rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue at you, only to quickly smile at your remark. "Now stop being silly and let's work."

You follow her into your bedroom and sit down in front of your computer. She sits on a familiar stool and the two of you immediately start working. You share what you have so far, all you do is record some more vocals, including harmonies and adlibs. You polish things with Wendy by your side to help make some stylistic choices. It took a few hours that only felt like mere minutes.

The sun is still out, unlike the first time the two of you had worked together. This leads you to ask Wendy something before she would leave.

"While we're here we should just record the collab video, yeah?" Wendy's eyes light up in recollection of your previous conversation.

"That sounds good, how about we do the Q&A type video today? I can just message Yeri for some questions."

"Sure, I'll ask Seulgi to make up some interesting things for us to answer too."

The two of you didn't have to wait long as both of your friends replied fast, excited to help out and excited to have some questions answered. You situate yourself next to Wendy in a comfortable position and get the camera ready. After getting the camera in position you take the time to fix the lighting in your room, making sure to have a soft and natural feeling with the lights.

Finally, the red light begins to blink on your camera and you wave. Wendy follows along and flashes the camera a friendly look. You give a quick introduction for the video.

"Hey everybody! I'm here with Wendy today to do a little Q&A type video for you guys! We've both gotten some questions from our friends and it's just to share a little about us, how we feel about our collaboration, behind the scenes type of stuff, you know?" Wendy tilts her head and looks at you as you talk, nodding to your words.

"I really can't wait to answer these questions with you." She says with a smile. She looks back at the camera as she pulls her phone out and looks at her messages with Yeri. "Neither of us have prepared any script or anything. We've barely even looked at the questions they've sent us!" You nudge Wendy with your elbow and laugh at a thought.

"What if they sent us something inappropriate?"

"Oh god, Yeri totally would." You both giggle before Wendy prompts you to start reading questions first.

"Alright we'll stop wasting our audience's precious time now. My dear Seulgi's first question is… "what were your first impressions?" Wendy doesn't hesitate to answer the question as soon as it was asked.

"Oh! Whenever Y/N entered the café we were meeting in I was kind of surprised! She doesn't post a lot of pics of herself so to see someone as talented as her in real life was an honor. She's really cute, right?" She reaches out to pinch the cheek of your so-called cute face. You strain a smile of embarrassment at her antics.

"Yeah yeah, I don't record myself a lot." When she stops her assault on your face you follow-up with your opinion. "For Wendy… I was also really surprised… I think I'm really lucky. You guys should know that a camera really doesn't do her justice! When I first met her she certainly gave off a very approachable demeanor too."

"Why do you think that?"

"I don't know? I was really nervous meeting you, yet when I saw you and when we got to talk the atmosphere turned into something really comfortable fast. Let's just move on to the next question." You take a look at your phone again to see Seulgi's question. "What's your favorite thing about the other? Well, Wendy has always been so sweet, it's been wonderful working with her. I appreciate the care and dedication to her work that she has shown me. Her musicality really helped pull everything together, and when I was stuck she was always there to give me a fresh perspective."

"Aww, that's so sweet of you." Wendy says with a blush on her face, her hand covering her face as she laughs a bit. "It's strange to be talking to you like this, I feel like. I think you're a really straightforward person but we haven't really talked about our opinions to this extent! Especially to a camera. Ah… well I think I could really say everything the same for Y/N." Wendy nods a bit in thought before continuing on. "To add to it though, I think Y/N has just always been so considerate to me. Like, beyond being a great musician she has been a good person to me. I think if you've seen some of our interactions on Twitter you'll know that she ended up cooking a wonderful meal for me on our first meeting. I think that if she wasn't as nice as she is, we wouldn't have had this much fun together… wait, this has been fun for you too, right?"

"Oh my god, yes it has. How could you doubt that?" You punch her arm with a fake upset face. You turn back to the camera. "Guys, we've hung out and have talked soooo much outside of our collab. I literally don't understand how she can have a single doubt in her mind about us having fun."

"It doesn't hurt to clarify! Anyways, next question now! And stop punching so hard!"

"Oh hush, it wasn't that hard. Oh hmm, to go along with that Seulgi wonders what our least favorite thing about each other is."

"That's an easy one!" Wendy says all too excitedly. You make a shocked expression, worry flooding your system as Wendy points at you with a smile. "I hate how you're absolutely brimming with talent! Your work is impeccable! Musical genius!"

You groan as your body crumples. "You nearly gave me a heart attack…" Your voice is muffled between your knees.

"It's true though!" Wendy says in a sing-song voice, her face smug in satisfaction to see your scared reaction. "Otherwise there's nothing I can really say."

You gather the strength to get back up and face the camera, then Wendy. Your face is still filled with disappointment but you take your time to stare at Wendy. As you stare at her she seems to come undone as she nervously looks away.

"What are you doing?" A red color subtly creeps up her neck.

"I'm just thinking. I'm thinking that… You also have nothing wrong with you." Wendy can't help but to roll her eyes at your comment. "Except for being awfully cheesy. It makes me wanna go bury myself in a ditch so I won't have to hear your stupid cheesiness again."

"Whatever, whatever. It's my turn to read the questions. Now… this is a good one, "what has the work process been like?"

"Well that's obvious, I do all the work and Wendy leeches off of me like a parasite."

"Hey! Just because it's true doesn't mean you have to say it to the world!" Her response throws you into a fit of laughter, turning you into a mess.

"Oh my, no no! It's really not like that. I would say we have an equal workload, or a workload that makes sense between our respective positions." Wendy shakes her head in disagreement.

"I don't feel so. I feel like Y/N always does so much work, and she does it so quickly too. It makes me feel kind of bad when I sit beside her and see her work her magic. When she's focused and working so hard it's quite amazing."

"Ah geez." You shyly scratch the back of your neck. "Wendy's always like this, complimenting me. Like I said earlier though, she really helps bring me new perspective when I'm stuck and her musicality is like nothing else. She always takes the time to sit next to me and monitor things too. It's not like she's a third party to the process. Not only that," You take the time to send Wendy a smile in an attempt to reassure her that you're not burdened with work. You want her to know that you appreciate her part of the creative process, "but nothing really feels like hard work when I'm with you."

Wendy has a hard time processing your words, so instead of addressing it she decides to just further elaborate her answer to the question.

"Well, I'll just lay down the process for everyone. Obviously, Y/N produces and I sing. Although after enough convincing from me you'll hear her singing on the tracks as well, so say thank you! It all started when Y/N took the time to reach out to me, which I was really excited about by the way, and then we both agreed to meet up at a local place. We just talked about concepts and our availability. We both ended up writing songs and worked together on what we wanted to keep or change. Everything productive happens here," Wendy opens her arms to gesture to the area around her, "at Y/N's place. Even though I have audio equipment at my place too we just record things here."

"Yeah, everything she said is true. I have a little set-up here in my room. I don't think I've ever really shown you guys it? I mean, I've shown my guitar collection before but not all my other equipment yet. I'll film that another time though. Next question?"

"Oh this is kind of interesting to think about, "what do you think the reception of your mini-album will be?" The both of you take a moment to think about it. Recalling many of the things you've read on social media you decided to speak first.

"Well, I think it'll be extremely beneficial to the both of us in multiple ways. I mean first off, I guess by our genre of music we have a lot of overlap between fans. There's been an overwhelming amount of support from fans who are excited to see the both of us collaborate and interact. I have no doubt that it'll do well since it's so highly anticipated by our fans. It'll be even better if you guys manage to stream and share it!" Throughout your explanation you begin to give Wendy shy glances. "I think that even if we drop our music and it doesn't meet much success, I would've gained a lot. I think working together with Wendy has helped me grow as a musician and anything that I learn here I will utilize in the future."

At your last comment Wendy seemed to get excited and she quickly added on.

"Exactly! If anything the most important part about all of this is the fact that I have gained skills as a musician and gained a friend. That greatly outweighs any potential of success." Wendy has a bright smile on her face, happy to be able to call you a friend.

"That doesn't mean we don't want you guys to go ahead and share our music by the way." You joke light-heartedly. "It would mean a lot if you did."

"Now final question for this video! We've been talking too much." Wendy looks at her phone, unlike before she takes a couple seconds before reading the question aloud. "Uh, I think this should be fun to answer. "What do you want to do in the future together?" I think that obvious answer is to make more music!"

You chuckle at her answer before responding as well. "Going to each other's places to have a jam session doesn't sound bad, but hanging out in general is good. We'll definitely continue being friends, and if the reception for our collab is really good we might do another one? That is, of course, if Wendy is okay with that."

"I would be more than happy to do that. I was also thinking of forcing you to binge watch more shows and movies with me."

"Only if you stop hogging the popcorn. Anyways, I think this should be the end of our video. I highly encourage all of you to check-out Wendy's channel in a couple days. The day right before release we're going to be dropping one more video together! Bye-bye!" You wave a goodbye to the camera with a smile. Wendy joins you in your outro.

"See you guys soon!"

You go to turn your camera off as Wendy goes to gather her things. After turning off your lights you go to sit back down on your seat, importing the recently filmed footage to your computer. Wendy takes this moment to sit down next to you again.

"Again, thank you for your hard work!" She says it with a smile as she brings her hand on your arm. "I'm always amazed with the quality of your work and how quickly you can do it."

"No problem, I'll send the songs to you later for your feedback. We'll be able to post everything soon." You smile back at her and give her hand a comforting squeeze. A part of you wishes you could keep your hand there forever.

"Alright, well see you at my place soon!"

When you finally hear the click of your door closing you let out a sigh. You don't want to think about it. You don't want to face it.

You don't want to face the possibility that you've fallen.

You slowly peel your bedsheets off of your body. The cold ground attacks your feet when you make contact, leading you to quickly jump across the room to open the door. By habit you go to the living room, unsurprised to see Sooyoung on the couch. As you get closer you see her body curled up as she diligently reviewed her schedules and had an open lyric book in front of her.

You decide to have a little fun and sneak up behind her, placing your hands over her eyes.

“Guess who?” You tease. Sooyoung lets out a breathy laugh.

“It’s you, dummy.” Her snarky response wasn’t the answer you were looking for and you prod her to keep going.

“No no, that’s not it.” This isn’t the first time you’ve done this to her, and Sooyoung laughs a bit more before deciding to humor you.

“Right, the person behind me is my girlfriend, the most beautiful, caring, dutiful, funny, and loving person I have the pleasure of being with. My whole entire world!” You giggle as you pull your hands away, leaning in to give her a kiss on her cheek.

“Oh, isn’t my girlfriend the smartest?” You praise her for getting the right answer before going to the front of the couch and snuggling in beside her.

“She sure is.” She replies before focusing back on her work.

You observe her for a moment in silence, not wanting to disturb her too much. You watch the determination that burns in her eyes as she intently stares at her screen. The display showed everything that she’d have to do in preparations to her anticipated solo debut. Something that she had dreamed of for forever. Something that you’re proud of her for.

You look down a bit, seeing the tired dark circles around her eyes. Then you see her teeth sink into her lower lip as she bites it in nervousness. She brings a hand up to her face while the other fidgets with a pen.

“What are you thinking about?” You ask softly as you rest your head on her shoulder. You give her your attention as you look into her eyes with a worried face.

“I’m just nervous about everything. I just... I just need my debut to go well. You know how it is.” Sooyoung stops looking at her screen and scribbles something in her open book, then she looks at you to give you a gentle smile. “What about you? Why are you up so late?”

You sigh. You don’t want to upset her with your answer but you want to be honest.

“I just can’t sleep, not without you anyways.” You admit and see her expression change. Her eyebrows rise a little as her eyes send you a look that you can’t describe, one that was like an acceptance of defeat, an invitation to love.

“Okay then, to bed we go.” She says as she stands up.

“Oh no, I don’t want to take you away from your work.” You take her hands and try to make her sit back down.

“Is my dear girlfriend trying to get me to not spend time with her?”

“Oh god don’t twist my words.” You laugh at her and she smiles back.

“Really, it’s not a big deal darling. You deserve to rest.” You would argue with her further, but the sudden heaviness in your eyelids say otherwise. You let her drag your body to the bedroom. You tuck yourself into your side of the bed, happy to see the emptiness beside you to be filled with the large and lovely presence of Sooyoung.

“Dear... if it’s not too much to ask...” You shyly begin to ask Sooyoung for a favor.

“Hm?” She says as she moves herself closer to you, her warm arms draping over your cold body.

“Can you sing me to sleep?”

“Of course I can.”

It starts off as a hum at first, but she eases into singing as she got more comfortable. Rubbing circles on your back she serenades you.

“Forget everything that’s happened to you

So you should throw away all the painful memories

Don’t cry, today’s a new day

Get ready to welcome it

Lonely days, all goodbye

And the tears in my heart, goodbye now oh...”

As if it was magic your body loses its tension at the sound of Sooyoung’s voice. Her touch taking away the heaviness in you as you finally feel your mind drifting, floating afar to a dreamland where you’d likely find her again.

The melody of your alarm jolts your body awake as you rush to turn it off. Though the idea of more sleep was tempting you forced yourself to get out of bed. After all, you had a busy and full day today.

As you get out of bed you turn to take one last look at Sooyoung before leaving. Unexpectedly, the blankets laid flat without her sleeping form. You quietly exit your room and go to the kitchen to see Sooyoung eating breakfast, with a plate of food set in front of an empty chair for you.

“Did you not sleep at all?” It worried you to see that she had woken up before you.

“I did! Don’t worry. I just woke up a bit earlier to make breakfast for you.” You smile at her words and scoot your chair closer to her so you could eat right next to each other.

“Well thank you a lot, I know you’re really busy but it means a lot to me that you’ve spent so much time on me anyways.”’

“Of course I would!” She playfully hits your arm. “Besides, I think that you were lying about being unable to sleep. You slept like a baby as soon as you hit the bed. I got out to go finish some work before actually going to bed once I saw that you fell asleep already.”

“It wasn’t like that when you weren’t in bed, I swear! Your voice is heavenly, Sooyoung, it’s only natural that I’d sleep like a baby isn’t it?” In a rare moment of vulnerability she drops her gaze at your compliment, a red tint taking place on her cheeks.

“That’s not true!”

“Oh shush it, it is. I’d know first hand.” You poke her cheek. “You’re an idol for a reason! You’re having a solo debut for a reason! There’s not a single bone in your body that doesn’t scream talented.” Sooyoung takes a breath before looking at you again.

“You really mean it?” You roll your eyes and attack her face with kisses.

“Yes I mean it! What’s gotten into you?” You try your best to drown her in affection. She laughs at your antics and her heartbeat quickens.

“I’m sorry! It’s just...” You break away from her for a bit to let her talk. “I guess I don’t believe in myself. With so many big things coming up all of a sudden I can’t believe that I’ve really come this far. Sometimes I feel like I’m faking it all and that I don’t deserve it, that some pure kind of dumb luck has gotten me here.”

“You’ve worked so hard darling.” You cup her face in your hands. “You’ve gone through so much, trust me I know. I know by how tired you look when I see you come home. I know by how many nights I don’t see you in bed. I know by what I see all over the news. You deserve it all.”

Sooyoung scrunches up her face and covers it with her hands, screaming at your words.

“You do too much! Ah, just go to work already, we’ve spent a lot of time together.”

You get out of your seat and kiss her once more on the forehead before getting ready for the rest of the day. When you finish and reach to open the door to leave Sooyoung stops you.

Yes, this feeling right here in your chest. The feeling you get when you wake up startled and in a frenzy from a dream of spending a day with Seulgi. A life with Seulgi. It’s the feeling that you get when she asks for your hand so that the two of you can make a fool of yourselves dancing. The strange way your chest seems to contract and hurt when Seulgi sneaks a smile while the commandment screams orders at you.

Since when did you feel like this? You’re not sure. Maybe it was that one night the two of you spent together weeks ago, where you finally felt confident enough to lead the dance for once. You had pulled her close with a bold move you didn’t even plan to make, making Seulgi give you a shocked look before glancing away, barely catching her soft smile. Maybe she was proud of you in that moment, you don’t know. You don’t know anything anymore besides Seulgi, besides the fact that you were hyper aware of her breath that night. Of the way her garments clung so close to skin, the rise and fall of her chest, the length of her eyelashes, the slope of her nose.

Every day you’re greeted by the sunrise, only to be anticipating its set.

Before you can spend your cherished time with Seulgi though, you had to go through the motions of your day. Time seemed to pass slowly as you sparred and trained. Nowadays though there was a lightness in your body that wasn’t there before, and your eyes had become better at reading the flowing movements of your opponents. You were ecstatic to see your improvement, likewise were the commanding officers and fellow apprentices, it seemed. Some officers urged you to continue to carry out whatever it was that you were doing to improve and to finally displace Seulgi. Meanwhile the knights-in-training were muttering among themselves about your progress and how it was done.

To say that you were happy that morning training ended would be an understatement. The second highlight of your day would be the precious half hour you spent with Seulgi during your afternoon meal. As you impatiently wait in line to be served whatever was deemed nutritious for prospecting knights, you think about how you were just a couple months ago. After spending some time with Seulgi you wanted to somehow be even closer to her, to spend time beyond the midnight dances you two shared.

When you had first decided to sit next to Seulgi instead of by your lonesome, you were uncharacteristically nervous. You were sure that if people looked carefully enough they could have noticed how your steady sword-arm shook as you held onto your tray of food. People didn’t hide their raised eyebrows at your approach, some people left the area, terrified at the thought of you possibly coming over to terrorize them.

It was a surprise when you had quietly asked if it was okay for you to seat yourself next to Seulgi. She didn’t hesitate to say yes, flashing you her crescent eyes you had unknowingly grown accustomed to. The surrounding witnesses to the sight were confused. When would you have willingly associated with anyone? Especially Seulgi, and in such a shy manner?

When you finally get your meal you walk towards the familiar table and remember your present day situation. Now that time has passed people are less wary around you and how you seemingly lack the intention to verbally abuse and berate people. In fact, when you began to take Seulgi’s advice of smiling more people seemed to… like you? It helped that you lost most of your competitive streak, instead favoring to focus on yourself and what you can do. Mostly your dancing, though, as you yearned to impress Seulgi more each and every night.

The clank of your tray against the wooden aging table alerts Seulgi of your presence. Quickly turning her head away from the person she was talking to, she opens her mouth to greet you. That was until Markus, a man who came from a noble family with notable enough skills, called out for you. You move to face the source of his voice, only to notice him uncomfortably close to your side. It was odd for him to suddenly appear when you swore you didn’t notice him on your way over.

“Hey, I was just wondering if you’d like to duel me in the afternoon? You know, since we haven’t gotten an opportunity to do so for the past couple weeks. Maybe go on a walk afterwards?” He throws you a shy, maybe even a cheeky smile. If there was one thing you knew about him it was that you’ve had much more encounters with him than you’d like recently, and that smile of his was one he’d thrown at other female trainees in the past. If anything, he was merely a passing thought.

“Sure, I don’t care.” You say in your signature neutral tone. Hoping that he’d leave you alone now, you began to turn back to Seulgi. Your movement is stopped when Markus puts his hand on your shoulder and swipes a finger across your cheek.

“You had some dirt there from practice. Just wanted to get it off.” He grins tortuously wide before excusing himself from the table. You sigh, and when you finally get to look at Seulgi she has a raised brow, her mouth forming a tight line. Not sure what to do at her sudden change of mood, you pick at your food a bit. You feel like you can’t eat anything under her intense stare.

You’re starting to feel nervous until Seulgi decides to tap on your shoulder. Glancing up from your plate you see her with a handkerchief in hand.

“I think," she pauses, "Markus made it worse, actually.” She adds before gently rubbing the dirt that became spread across your face. You scrunch your nose and eyes but a small smirk forms in affection.

“Does it really matter, though? I don’t care about how I look.”

“I think you look cuter without it. And more hygienic.”

**

After your meal came your academic and strategical studies. Your brain dulls into mush after countless hours of toiling over geography and the endless ways a person can kill someone. Although you still do well in a more scholar-like learning environment, your body greatly preferred the battlefield. You let out a sigh of happiness when you were allowed to stretch and start another round of sparring.

Keeping to your promise, you await as you lean into your training sword until Markus shows up in your vision again. He walks towards you with such unnerving confidence and a grin you think is permanently scribbled on his face.

“Are you ready, my lady?”

“Don’t patronize me.” You mumble. The two of you back away from each other to an appropriate distance before getting into your stances. Some people gather around the scene, which wasn’t uncommon for your battles. They want to make a spectacle of your fight.

When you rush forward towards Markus you get a good stab straight in his stomach. His reflexes seemed almost slow, or at least much slower than yours or Seulgi’s. He lets out a grunt, but the training armor and his natural durability keeps him on his feet. In an attempt to make you fall, he swings his sword arm directly downwards towards your back. You easily sidestep and continue a relentless sequence of parries and hard smacks against his arms and legs.

This continues on for minutes on minutes, much longer than the vast majority of your fights. Markus has proven himself to be a bad fighter, and the only reason you haven’t won yet is the fact that your sword wasn’t made to kill and the fact that Markus has stupidly good endurance. It’s hard for you to keep fighting. Not because you were lacking stamina but on account of the monotony of his moves started to bore you greatly.

Your mind wanders as you automatically parry Markus’ pathetic slashes without much thought. You recall how you have to go on a walk with Markus when he slips a slight grin, but after that you can go about your day and eventually spend the night with Seulgi. You think about how her smile looks in the moonlight, how her hair bounces as you move to a make-believe rhythm. You unconsciously put on a broad grin as you hope she teaches you something new tonight.

You’ve let your attention slip for too long though. When you get a grip on reality again, you realize that you’re now on the ground and Markus’ blade is descending on your body. Your reaction allows you to bring up your sword to his, a loud clang traveling through the air. With all your might you push back, trying to angle your sword so his would slide off and break free from contact. It seems like you may be able to fend off his weapon for a second, but he yells as he delivers all of his strength into pushing down on you.

The force is more than enough to make your sword lose contact with his. With the blade right on your throat he throws on a victorious expression and screams in happiness. The crowd around you softly murmur as they look at each other. Markus drinks in his win and he looks at everyone and then at you.

“You’ve gone soft on me, haven’t you?”

“What? What do you mean?” You try to brush the dirt off your back as you get up.

“I mean, why would you all of a sudden smile and let me win like that otherwise?” He chuckles with his words as he approaches you and places a hand on your back.

“I was just distracted.” You try to get away from him, but he gets closer and whispers in your ear.

“By me, right?” You hear a certain kind of joy and conceitedness in his voice that makes you want to vomit while simultaneously punching him.

“No. Now let's just get this walk done with so I can go shower or shoot my bow, or something.” At your words he shuffles away and uncomfortably leaves some space between the two of you as you go for a quick walk in the woods. Everybody watches as you two leave the area, and as you pass by you hear their whispers.

“…like him?”

“ …usually ruthless…why’d she let him win?”

“…was right…gone soft.”

You aren’t sure what to do about their theorizing or their mindless gossip, nor what to do with the man who was now clinging onto your side. What was usually a peaceful and quiet trail for you became loud and annoying as Markus kept trying to flirt despite your silence and lack of response to his remarks. It was hard to appreciate the beauty in the trees and forest life over the talkativeness of the man next to you. If you could, you wouldn’t have gone on a walk with him, but you felt like it was dishonorable of you to break an appointment or promise.

You think that next time you should bring Seulgi with you instead, it would be a pleasant experience then.

After what felt like a century of walking, you had finally looped around the trail and made it back to the beginning of the forest. You continue to trek forward and almost leave Markus behind, but he grips onto your waist and looks at you for a moment. The tinge of expectancy that gleamed in his eyes, and that's when you knew. You watch in a panic as he flutters his eyes and brings his lips to yours.

There’s a ringing in your ears from how hard you slap him.

“Don’t.” You say while walking away from him.

You decide that you should go to the shower to wash off his filth, then go to the archery range to practice shooting his face in your head.

**

It would be a lie to say you weren’t sore from the amount of work you forced upon your body today. As you hunker towards the barracks though, a sudden burst of energy renews the feelings in your limbs when you find Seulgi patiently awaiting you like always. The area clears out of people until it’s just you and Seulgi. She comes by your side to walk with you towards the field.

Your dance begins and you drink in the comfortable silence until Seulgi decided to speak.

“So, Markus, how do you feel about him?” There’s a sense of inquisitiveness that you haven’t heard from her before.

“Hm? He’s just a person.” She makes a face at your answer, scrunching her eyebrows as she pushes further,

“Really? You know, when I finished my practice match and walked around everybody was talking about the two of you… you know. How you’re a thing or something.”

“Just a misunderstanding.” You assert, but Seulgi seems to want to hear more.

“Do you not like him? What about anybody else? I feel like everybody is dying for your attention these days.” With the last sentence there’s a subtle shift to a sadder, even disgruntled tone in her voice. You watch as she bites her lip waiting for an answer, entranced enough to almost forget to reply. The insecurity was hard to ignore.

“I don’t really talk to anyone besides you, Seulgi, and I don’t know why people bother. Maybe they just respect my abilities and think now that I’m friendlier I’d be interested in a conversation. Also, you aren’t one to talk. You’ve had people following you around and worshipping you since day one.” Thinking about it, you can‘t ever remember a time where Seulgi didn’t have someone by her side.

Another wave of silence envelopes you as Seulgi finally nods, maybe settling with this answer. Or at least is mulling over your words. As she takes the time to think, you remember the events that happened earlier in the day and the question that had been bothering you.

“By the way, are you making me soft?”

You interrupt the dance you shared by taking a step back. You cock your head in examination. Recently it’s been hard to tell if Seulgi’s influence over you had been helpful or harmful. Especially since there were instances where you almost completely lost your focus like you did today.

“Where is this coming from?” She asks while putting on a confused smile, as if to say ‘excuse me?’.

“Well, obviously I’m more approachable now because of your advice, but now you’re getting in the way of my fighting.”

“Huh?” Seulgi is taken aback by your words and how you state them so matter-of-factly.

“Sometimes I lose focus in the middle of fights now. They accused me of becoming soft.”

“How can I possibly be at fault for that?”

“Well, it’s you that I think about. All the time.” You reach out for her hand, gently tugging it towards you and then onto your chest. “And you make my heart beat real fast. Faster than any running commandment has made us done. It kind of hurts my chest, really. Have you casted a spell on me too?”

You feel Seulgi’s hand tremble in a quake.

“Y/N, are you joking right now?”

“No, I just want to know, why do I feel like this all the time around you?” Looking at Seulgi’s face you spot how the tips of her ears turned a bright red, despite the darkness of the night. Your other hand pulls back her hair so you can examine it further. With a worried look you ask, “Oh, are you cold? Should we go back inside?” You panic a little as you see the pink had spread onto the rest of her face.

“You…” Seulgi’s breath has quickened, and she rescinds her hand from yours. You’re worried you’ve done something wrong as Seulgi refused to even look at you, instead she's staring at her feet. “You like me, stupid.” The dramatic atmosphere turns lighthearted as she laughs boisterously.

“Huh? Is that what this means?”

“Are you being serious with me?” Seulgi keeps laughing at you, much to your frustration.

“Yes! I am! I don’t understand! I’ve never felt this way before, that’s why I have to ask.” Your face lapses to a pout and that seems to encourage her to keep laughing at you.

“Hey, stop pouting!” Her laughing reduced to giggles as she walked closer to you. She brings her hands forward as they cup your face. Your knees feel weak, buckling at the warmth in her hands and the care they seemed to radiate. She finally calms down when she asks you, “Now, if you really like me then tell me," she sucks in a quick breath," would you like to kiss me right now?”

For a second you’re frozen, but soon enough you bashfully nod your head a little too hard.

Her lips reach yours and you instantly smile. The lips that you’ve stared at for hours, the ones that say the words that have moved you the most, the ones that curve adorably and ignites the dormant happiness within you. You stay that way for a moment that both felt like forever and like no time at all. Seulgi breaks away before kissing each of your cheeks.

Luckily you're only doing a table-reading right now, so the lackluster amount of effort you're exerting over your lines doesn't seem particularly odd. You struggle to grasp the plot of the script or the context of your lines all because of the bubbling feeling of admiration settling in your stomach.

Park Sooyoung. You don't know much about her, only hearing about her success as an idol and now her building success in the acting industry. You've been beginning to build quite a name for yourself too, so you can't help but to respect the tenacity she must have to be able to juggle an acting career with her idol career. God knows how much free time you have for yourself these days and how hectic life is.

You appreciate the way she holds herself too. She's a confident woman that holds herself in well regard without lessening the value of others. Some people wouldn't get that impression when looking at her, but you do. Years of understanding minute details of body language has come to at least some benefit it seems. Her gaze, although some may find frightening, is entrancing to you, and the way she looks at others makes you believe that she holds no malice. Unfortunately you can't say that for every actor you've come across.

For example, already Sooyoung's co-star, Minjoon, has gotten on your nerves. He's already quite famous himself, so he along with Sooyoung are the biggest attractors in this new drama you're all filming. He has the expected attitude that any extremely handsome man who lives a comfortable and lavish life in fame has. A conceited one.

You recall the day of callbacks as he passed you in the hallway. It was just you and a few other women. Very few people were told to come to the second audition, and seeing as this was the biggest drama you'd have even the slightest chance of being in, you were quite pleased with yourself. Minjoon completely destroyed your mood though as he took it upon himself to stop right in front of you with a look of confusion on his face.

You had thought to yourself that maybe he was just confused with your presence, after all you were surrounded with much more well known actresses than you. What you didn't expect though, was for him to boldly state that aloud.

"What's a no-name like you doing here? Are you lost?"

You could barely hide a wince from his comment when you politely replied.

"Sorry no, I'm here for callbacks to play Haeun." Unlike you, Minjoon certainly didn't hide his expression. You remember how degrading it was, him eying you up and down. Without a second thought, as if his words meant nothing, he spits again.

"I don't think you'll make it. Just go home, don't you think you're too ugly for the role?"

You notice your grip on your script has made the paper crumple a bit. As you loosen your grip though, you realize that you're already on the last page and that Sooyoung was delivering the last lines for the episode. You flip back to the first page and set your script down as the writers called the reading done. Everybody got up to leave the room, most of them going to a longue in the building. Filming would start in a couple days and you figured it would be best to feel more comfortable with the people you'd spend a significant time on set with.

The longue was a relatively small room, but it was spacious enough for the ten or so people who decided to linger. You make your way around the room, bowing and making introductions with everybody else. You began to feel a bit jittery remembering that not only are you appearing in the same show as Park Sooyoung, but with other popular people too.

You take a moment to stop and watch everyone talking. Looking around the room filled with people who you've read articles and heard rumors about, a sense of pride once again begins to wash over you. You're excited that you've made it this far, this fast. That wave of pride is soon reigned back in as you feel a light tap on your shoulder though. When you turn your neck to see the person who was vying for your attention the pounding in your chest returned.

"Hello? Y/N, right? I'm Park Sooyoung." She says it with a smile glistening on her face. You feel heat in your cheeks as you're flustered and stunned from the fact that she knows your name.

"Oh! Yes! That's me!" You barely manage to say without stumbling over your words. "It's very nice to meet you, Sooyoung." The woman in front of you seems to find your reaction humorous as she laughs before continuing.

"I just wanted to get to know you better. You know, since you're playing my best friend."

"That's true, I think it's an honor to be able to share the screen with you." Sooyoung smiles at your compliment as a glint of admiration crosses her eyes.

"Actually, I also wanted to say that I think it's an honor to work with you! I watched you in 'Runaway Clubhouse'. I'd say you're better than me, maybe even half the people in this room." There's certainly no way for you to hide your surprise at Sooyoung's flattery.

"Oh really? I'm surprised you watched it, it's a relatively unknown webdrama. Do you like to watch smaller shows?"

"Not particularly. I just saw a popular clip of you and I was impressed and drawn into your performance. It was enough for me to binge the entire thing."

"Well, I've listened to some of your songs. Your voice is really beautiful. I hope they use it in the show. I assume you're going to record an OST?" You try your best to repay her compliment and to continue the conversation. It seemed to work as the two of you quickly spiraled on and on, being some of the last people to leave the lounge. After talking with Sooyoung for a bit the conversation came easily. Most importantly you began to see her more as an approachable person rather than someone in a different world than you. Your nervousness around her went away.

"We've been talking for a while now and I know we both have lines to memorize. How about you give me your number and we chat again another time?" Sooyoung asks you out of formalities but she already begins to pull out her phone.

"Of course, I would love to."

Your days are busy as you rush to memorize lines and show up on set, repeating scenes over and over again to get it to the director's liking. You don't mind it though as you get to experience what it's like to work on a bigger project. The people that you get to spend time with are also, for the most part, pleasant. The crew on set are polite and mind their own business. Fellow actors have also been nice and you all have had boisterous moments on set, everybody bonding a bit more. There are, of course, exceptions, but you try not to focus on them much.

By far the person you enjoy spending time with the most is Sooyoung. Every day you're thankful that you play a role that lets you be in so many shots with her. Even when the director would get mad and impatient it was fun to mess up scenes with her, and after filming the two of you would occasionally find time for an outing together. Over the past couple months you've gotten increasingly closer. There are plenty of times where you feel the need to tell her how lucky you are but she just laughs it off.

Fans have noticed how close you've both gotten with each other too. Both of you have posted a lot of promotional photos for the drama, including plenty of pictures of the two of you together behind the scenes. You're happy to see how many followers you've gained as well as the comments you've gotten on your posts. They're overwhelmingly positive and it seems like you'll have good prospects for future roles.

You find yourself spending a lot of free time just scrolling on the internet and looking at the audience's feedback. They seem to like not just the show itself, but the chemistry between you and Sooyoung on set. The friendship appears real and genuine, definitely thanks to the fact that off-set it is. There are still things that people complain about though, such as the pacing and lack of depth for some characters. One surprising complaint, or rather wish, that you somehow always eventually find is the wish for your character and Sooyoung's to get together.

"i feel like both of the male leads are too confusing and bad for her… wouldn't Haeun be a better love-interest? lol"

"I know they're just best friends!! But I mean! Some of these scenes have literal heart-eyes."

"Secret ending will be her getting with Haeun."

Whenever you see comments like these you're stunned for a moment but consider their perspective. You suppose that people could read your actions in the show as being a supportive best friend, but you understand how some actions code you otherwise.

Were you really throwing heart-eyes at her? Perhaps you're much better at acting than you initially thought.

You tiredly wait off-set with Sooyoung. You've just finished a scene and patiently await for the moment you'll be shoved back in front of the cameras. Today has been exhausting as the drama has been nearing its end. Actors and staff alike working hard to try to wrap up as fast and efficiently as possible.

"I know we'll be having a big celebration dinner with the entire crew in a couple weeks, but would you like to hang out with just the two of us beforehand? Celebrate our own successes?" Sooyoung suddenly asks as she watches the mill of people working around you.

"Oh, sure! I think that sounds like a good id-" You lose your breath as Minjoon decides to aggressively run into you. His shoulder pushes you away as he purposefully makes you stand in the middle of his path. While you regain your balance and he continues to tread forward you hear him let out a disgruntled noise before muttering 'pig'.

You wipe at the right side of your body, feeling impure and dirty from being touched by him. You look up to Sooyoung to be met with the scariest face you've ever seen her make. Her eyebrows had a slight furrow and her eyes seemed so detached. What's scarier than overt anger is the anger that seems to be subtly brewing within a person.

"I don't like it when he treats you like that" A dejected huff comes out of her mouth as she watches him saunter away.

"It's fine, really." You try to convince her with your lying, "I'd like to believe that somehow, someday, it'll catch up to him anyways." Sooyoung seems to be angrier at your reaction than with Minjoon as she all of a sudden grabs your hands and closes in on you.

She's only inches away from you as she speaks. This time her voice doesn't seem to be brimming with spite, but rather she lets her voice fall onto your ears beautifully.

"No, don't take that kind of behavior from him. Or anyone." You try to focus on her eyes, but you keep looking between them and her unbelievably close lips. "You're the most kind and caring person I know. You're always able to make me smile like nobody else, and despite what he keeps on telling you…" Her compliments begin to overwhelm you. Sooyoung quickly catches on though as she brings her hand up to your face to swipe away a small tear slowly running down. "You're the most beautiful person I've ever seen too."

You can't tell what's going on now. The gaze that she holds for you is the most gentle and sincere thing you've ever seen. Your heart can't help but to flutter. The combination of her stare and the softness of her hands wrapped around yours sends a crawling feeling up your back. What's going on in her head?

What do her words mean?

"Sooyoung… I-" Not letting you finish your words she quickly rips herself from you, eyes going wide while staring at your hands.

"Sorry, I just wanted to make you feel better. Was I being too sappy?" There's a tint of redness in her cheeks as she smiles. It feels like she's uncomfortable as her eyes begin to wander elsewhere from you. Did you mess things up?

Well, maybe she just felt uncomfortable because she said something like that. With all the time you've spent with Sooyoung during the past few months you've known her to be someone who avoided speaking her mind too much. She had always been affectionate with you via her teasing, so it would make sense that suddenly being sincere like that would affect her. Yes, that's it.

She was just trying to make you feel better.

"No no no, it's okay. I mean it, Sooyoung. Thank you." You decide to close the distance between the two of you by hugging her. "Those words mean the world to me, especially coming from you." The two of you stand still for a second. Sooyoung strokes your hair affectionately until you break away from the hug. You're glad to see that she seemed to have calm down.

"Who knew you could actually get embarrassed?" You tease to lighten the mood.

"I have no idea what you mean." She says after throwing a weak punch to your arm.

As much as you try not to, you can't get Sooyoung's stare out of your head. That short moment of vulnerability you had with Sooyoung changed something for some reason. You keep telling yourself that you're just friends and that Sooyoung just did what a good friend would do. You tell yourself that the returned feeling of anxiousness you get around her has just blossomed out of confusion.

But why did she have to look at you that way? Look at you in a way nobody else has?

Why does every touch seem to make the both of you jolt now? Every time you have to touch her in a scene you swear you can subtly hear her breathing change. Brushing shoulders on set is enough to make her recoil. Yet at the same time, there are touches that just seem to linger more. When it's just the two of you hanging out she doesn't shy away from playing with your hands. When you walk side by side she can cling onto you, and if you offer your hand she doesn't hesitate to take it.

Everyday is a battle to decipher what her words meant, what she intended them for. It's been so long since you've had a friend as close and supportive as Sooyoung, so maybe you're just misinterpreting things. After all, the idea of Sooyoung liking you is nice, and sometimes the human mind just wants to believe in what it wants.

You force yourself to focus and drop the train of thought. You've been called to get in front of the cameras for a scene again. As you're filming some of the final episodes you know you need to be on top of your game. You need to give the viewers a stunning performance to pull at their heartstrings.

On the count of three you hear the quiet whir of machinery as they begin simulating rain. You drive on a lonely street lit up by streetlights. You get close to Sooyoung's character as she sobs quietly, haven been abandoned by Minjoon's character earlier. You exit the car.

Despite knowing that it is all acting, all just a scene, a real pained face appears on you. Sooyoung is an impressive actress as you full-heartedly feel worried for her, feel awful for seeing the state she's in.

"What's wrong?" Sooyoung continues to sob and hug you as planned. You bring your hand up to grip at her wet back and hold her in a tight embrace before she moves away.

"Baekhyun…he…" She says his name in between sniffles. You know you shouldn't but your mind wanders. In the moment you think about how you'd feel if Sooyoung was really crying. Crying over a boy. You think about how you'd never want to see her be this sad. How you'd never want her heart to break, and how you wouldn't want her heart to be anybody else's but yours.

It's a bad idea. Absolutely. But your heart wants it.

And you're sick of hiding your emotions.

When your lips meet you hear the shocked gasps of everyone. You surprise yourself with your sudden burst of courage, but what was most surprising was the fact that Sooyoung didn't pull away. She lets out a soft breath as she presses her lips against yours in return. She allows her arms to snake around your waist. As she gently holds you against her waist, your lips finally part.

"I'm so sorry." You apologize with a concerned expression. You had fallen for your impulses and embarrassed the both of you in front of everyone. Not only that, but you ruined the shot. As your mind races with regret Sooyoung brings a hand up to cup your face.

"Don't be." There she goes again. Giving you that look with her eyes. You break away from her hold and she doesn't retaliate. With fear you look towards the direction of the director and almost begin apologizing profusely.

He stops you by holding his hand up.

"We're keeping that." He says calmly. He quickly dismisses a majority of the crew and calls in a meeting with some staff. You're stuck dazed and confused before you turn back around to look at Sooyoung. She seems equally as confused about the turn of events but she decides to walk over to you.

"Hey." Her voice wavers for a second. Once again you see a side of Sooyoun that you don't usually see. "So, how about we make that dinner between the two of us a… dinner date? Unless you don't want to of course. Did I misinterpret things?" You smile as you grab her hand. You smile because you're the one who made her act like this, act in an unsure manner that you've never seen before.

"A dinner date sounds good."

To say that the internet broke would be an understatement. To see such a turn of events happen in a drama, and for those turn of events to include women kissing, was truly uncommon. For some the final few episodes turned them away from the series or made them only consider the other episodes to be real. For others, they appreciated the subversion of expectations and the representation.

As much as some people speculate, it hasn't been revealed that the scene of you and Sooyoung kissing wasn't scripted. Instead the director and writers decided to play off the raw emotions captured and to quickly change the ending to something that they felt was more suitable. Something that would be more gripping.

Minjoon wasn't happy with the ending at all. He felt like your actions affected how much screen-time he ended up having, which, yes, it was true. He also was upset that nearly all the discussion online about the drama was about you and Sooyoung's performance. During the celebration dinner with the crew Minjoon let his grievances be heard by anybody possible. You took the spotlight away from him. You deserved nothing.

Besting the people around you had always come easy. You've enjoyed the pain of your training, knowing that it would be proven a worthy investment of your time when you see a pitiful body laying on the floor in front of you. When you get to see the face of defeat, hear the admittance of it. For all you know you are the perfect warrior. A noble knight worthy to serve the monarch.

You're better than everyone. You know it. Except for her.

What was it? What did you she have that you didn't? Every time she bested you in a duel it dealt a bastardly blow to your ego. The words 'second best' would make your eye want to twitch. For all your strength and endurance, your familiarity with the motions of battle, Seulgi just seemed to understand it more.

You recount the many times your body would strain itself after being dealt with many sharp thwacks. The throbbing pains from falling and rolling, again and again. The sense of hope and excitement as you pushed yourself to take on a stance and seemingly deal a final blow, only for Seulgi to easily and gracefully step away, just to kick you back to the ground.

You hate her. You hate the weaklings underneath you too. You swear you can hear them snicker when you lose to her, that treacherous woman.

You stop your thoughts when you suddenly hear the booming voice of your master calling for you. Your grip strengthens around your training sword as you slowly make way towards Seulgi. It's time for the two of you to repeat the process. This time though, you are determined to win. Certain of it. Seulgi, the best apprentice in your regiment, would not longer make a mockery of you.

Your jaw hurts as clench, barely containing your anger. You try to calm down and refocus on the situation at hand. You look at Seulgi as she stands in her own battle-ready stance in front of you. You wonder how her blows deal so much power when her frame looks so delicate.

Focusing on calming down your breathing, you slowly advance forward. Your opponent does the same and soon enough you're circling around each other. It's the same story again. The same beginnings.

You want to end things quickly and dive in for the first blow. One blow should be all you need, you think to yourself. You force yourself to go as quickly as possible, everything around you a blur except for your target herself. All of a sudden though, she disappears and suddenly you feel your training sword facing resistance, threatening to escape your grasp.

You grunt in frustration and reorient yourself to find Seulgi. You spot her and balance yourself waiting for another opening. She is always on the defensive it seems, but you are never one to wait. As the seconds go by you deem it the right time to go for a slash. It feels as if your body is moving through molasses as you watch Seulgi glide out of your weapon's way in horror. You see her sword and a painful thwack is given.

It's the same story again. The same middle.

You repeat and repeat these motions. You going in for a hit only to be countered. Sometimes you'd get one in, but like you your opponent is hardy and gets back up. After a brutal pummeling you must resign yourself to defeat, as much as your heart hates it. The same ending as always.

This time though you can't seem to hold your tongue back.

You storm up closer to Seulgi and roughly hold onto the collar of her training attire. "What the hell is it? What's your secret?" You shake the woman a bit until her hands come up to your wrist. She pushes them down and you decide to let go. "Rematch tonight. I'll prove my worth." The words come out viciously but quietly. They were a promise both to her and yourself.

The crowd of spectators around you stay quiet after your outburst, and Seulgi doesn't say anything either. Not bothering to look at anyone's faces you leave the grounds to change clothes. They stuck to you with sweat and the gritty dirt that covered it bothered you

You can't think much for the rest of the day. The thoughts of your failure prevents you from enjoying training or beating other people. Soon enough you find yourself looking at a bowl of measly soup and bread in the mess hall all by yourself.

The warm soup makes you feel marginally better, but you don't pay much attention to it. Instead you take in your surroundings. This scenario is routine. You sit by yourself somewhere among the crowds of people interacting and enjoying their meal together. Even if people were nearby you simply would not speak. Why waste your breath on them?

In contrast to you though, you notice how hordes of people flock around the number one apprentice. Vying for her attention. Are you jealous? You can't tell. You just wonder if people would act that way towards you if you were the best.

Soon enough you hear the familiar yelling of a commander telling you all to return to your bunks. You quickly put away your bowl and utensils before hanging back from the line of people walking back towards the measly barracks that housed you all. Through the large body of people you see the crowd finally thin out as people their respective barracks. As you get closer to yours you finally spot Seulgi towards the entrance of the building. Coming up behind her you speak out.

"You didn't forget, did you?" She takes a moment to think before huffing.

"I suppose I should humor you after all."

You turn without letting her speak further. There's a silence between the two of you as you go to retrieve your training swords. You'd expect to hear loud padded footsteps behind you, but surprisingly Seulgi's footsteps sound faint. Nearly nonexistent.

The night sky of course makes it hard to see things, but your years of training has ingrained the layout of the entire area into your heart. It also helps that the moonlight allows you to see just enough as well. You make it to your destination with ease, picking up your weapon you watch as Seulgi grabs hers too.

"Where are we going to fight?" She questions you tiredly.

"Out in the field." Your answer is curt as you once again lead Seulgi, this time to the middle of the field you had fought in earlier in the day. When you arrive you distance yourself farther away from her and take your stance.

"You ready?" You ask her as you plant your feet into the ground and focus on your breathing.

"Mhm." Seulgi, unlike you, decides to stand there. She seems uncommitted, like she doesn't care about the fight. How dare she do that when your pride is on the line? When you're taking this so seriously?

Frustration builds up inside of you as you take her attitude as disrespect. You move in to give her a quick jab. Extending your arm, you feel your weapon graze her before she moves out of the way. A popping noise fills the air as she strikes down near the hilt of your weapon, trying to make you loosen your grip. It almost works but you quickly readjust your hands. You force up your sword in retaliation, breaking away the contact between your two swords.

With your sword so high up you decide to go for a horizontal swing towards Seulgi's body. In the early moments of your swing though, Seulgi ducks down and gives you an upwards jab towards your chest.

You heave as air forcefully leaves your lungs, a pain exploding around your chest.

"God!" You wheeze out loudly. Seulgi stands in front of you while she lowers her sword. You get down to your knees and look at the ground. Your breathing normalizes quickly but you try to get your bearings before rising again.

"I still... don't get it." As quickly as your breathing returned to its normal state, your voice quivered as your eyes felt hot. The disappointment that you seemingly always felt around Seulgi had made its reappearance. This time it hit harder than normal. Hard enough to make you start crying.

As your breathing began to become more uneven you finally raise your head and stand up. The form of your opponent gets closer to you. The only sounds between the two of you is the noises escaping your throat as you broke down again.

"How can you manage to fight like that?" You notice Seulgi has put both of her hands out to you. Your hesitance to take them spurs her to speak.

"I'll show you." Her voice touches you somehow. How have you never noticed how angelic she sounded? How gentle she was being with you right now? "Just take them."

You allow her to take your hands. She carefully clasps her similarly calloused hands around yours and begins to move. Her body sways, you don't quite understand why but you try to follow suit.

"I don't get it." You say as you try to mirror her movements. You fumble in embarrassment as Seulgi moves with confidence and grace. You're like a fawn who hasn't learned how to walk next to her.

"I'm a dancer, don't you see?" She momentarily lets go of your hands and walks backwards. You miss the feeling of her hands but you're entranced by the short show she puts on.

She performs for you, the dance itself was beautiful as she created curves and angles with her body. The moonlight enhances it, bouncing off her body and allowing her to glow.

Why have you never noticed how delicate her features looked? How it looked as if she was hand sculpted by the gods?

She returns back to you, taking your hands in hers and leads you back to dancing. You focus harder on trying to mimic her correctly. Eventually the both of you are gracefully dancing across the vast field. You're calmer now, happy even.

"See?" Seulgi says after a while of silent dancing. "The battlefield is my dancefloor, and I'm simply dancing around your blade."

"You're an incredible dancer, Seulgi." Seulgi has brought the two of you closer now. You notice how her lips tug up a bit as you pay her a compliment. That was the first time you've complimented her, perhaps even anyone here. It was the first time you said something without malice to her.

"I try." She laughs a bit. "I wanted to be a professional dancer at first actually. My family wanted me to go into a more noble field though, for the sake of our reputation. I protested at first of course. As I thought more though I decided I wouldn't mind protecting people. I still try to dance everyday though."

"Oh." Shock is laced through your voice. Listening to Seulgi was a humbling experience to say the least. You had wanted to become a knight for your own honor, to attain glory and recognition. You hadn't paid much thought towards protecting other people.

It was also strange to see Seulgi treat you like this. Her kindness was unprecedented. Was your hatred and spite one-sided all along?

"Hm?" Seulgi is curious to your shock as she quirks her eyebrow.

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"I've..." It hurts you a bit to say sorry, let alone apologize correctly. You force yourself to do it though. Maybe, just maybe, you need to change. "I've certainly acted coldly towards you and others. My actions have been... conceited." You here a soft giggle before Seulgi speaks again.

"You're cuter when you're not being awful, you know?" You're glad that the sun has set and that Seulgi can't see the embarrassment on your face. Seulgi hums a tune as you continue dancing together.

"Try smiling more and scowling less. You'd be more approachable that way, along with some attitude changes of course. Aren't you lonely?" She tries to advise you, and normally you'd lash out if anyone made comments about your behavior, but you can't help but to listen to the soothing voice of Seulgi.

"...I can try." You whisper. "I think, if I may speak frankly, I would be okay with being second best under you." Seulgi laughs again.

"Oh? Was dancing with you all it took to make you earn some humility?"

"Maybe... can we dance again another time?" You ask with hesitance before you quickly elaborate. "To get better at fighting, like you! Of course. Only if you want to."

"If this would effectively make you learn your lesson, then sure."

This was the first time you could talk to someone like this, and you like it.

"Thank you, Seulgi, for your patience."

When you leave you take your time exiting the building and walking down the streets. As you get closer to your car you see Taehyung's face light up through the window. His face is still smiling as you enter the car. He sighs in relief and takes one of your hands in his.

"I was so worried about you, you know. I got several reports of attempted attacks from, guess who? Irene." Taehyung says this as he leans in closer to you, his eyes furrowing into a serious look in sharp contrast to the soft tone of voice he had taken.

"I already know."

"What do you mean you know?" He asks with his voice rising.

"Well, she was right in front of me as she got a call telling her how her men are dead after her failed raid," you say sarcastically, "and she didn't shoot me dead on the spot. Instead she offered an alliance. I agreed."

Taehyung moves away from you, instead opting to rest his head against the window with a hand stressfully tugging on his hair.

"Really? Don't you think that's sudden? Suspicious?" He asks rhetorically.

"Yes, it is." The irrational explanation for agreeing would be telling Taehyung how you just wanted to understand Irene more, how you wanted to see what the turn of events would be. You knew you were better off telling him the rational reasoning for your decision though. "She's proven capable though, and most importantly she's strange and unpredictable. Her unpredictability should be feared and I think we would be better off operating under the guise of an alliance rather than cutting ties. Keep your enemies close, right?" Taehyung shakes his head in defeat at your response.

"Whatever. Do you want me to reorganize and cancel your plans concerning Irene then?"

"That would be for the best, yes."

*

*

A couple days have past since that night. Those days seemed to pass by slowly for some reason, even though you've been working as much as usual. Thankfully, a notification on your phone seemed to break up the monotony of the day.

Irene: Meet up tonight. My place at 10.

Y/N: What if I already have plans?

Irene: I don't care. Make time for me.

You roll your eyes as you put your phone down. Although you didn't truly have any important meetings or schedules today you wonder if she'd truly expect you to drop anything and everything for her. You couldn't tell if it was a hilarious or ridiculous expectation, especially for this field of work.

You text Taehyung the news of a meeting, telling him you'd drag him along. He sends back a dry "OK" and presumably gets back to work much like you.

*

*

You crack your back as you sit comfortably in a chair across from Irene and Seulgi. Taehyung is seated beside you, looking a bit on edge as he subtly takes in the entire room. You can't blame him though, you're both in 'enemy' territory after all.

Seemingly all the furniture is black and sleek-looking. Their surfaces reflecting the harsh white lights Irene turned on due to the night. Some doubts begin to creep in and you begin to feel uneasy, but you don't continue that train of thought for too long as Irene breaks the silence.

"As we are now working together, I want to say that our first move will be to go to a soon-to-be-happening auction. The one that I'm sure you have already been discreetly invited to."

You nod your head, thinking about the familiar black invitation card you received earlier that week, the one you've been receiving nearly every year. Although the Montanari family were the main organizers of the auction it's really a community effort that benefits everyone. It provided a safe place and way to network, to make money, to make deals.

"As we know, practically every mafia family will be there. It's our golden opportunity. We're gonna go there, get whatever intel we can, and leave.

"We have to keep our distance though. If we make it obvious that we're in an alliance now or that we're working together then other families feel inclined to deal with us. We have to be careful to not step on their toes too hard to alert them of anything." Throughout Irene's short speech you notice how tense Taehyung seems, his hands balling up tightly. You look over to him and almost ask if he was okay until he jumps from his seat.

"What makes you think we should trust you? Huh? How can I know you're not setting us up right now?" As Taehyung speaks his voice gets louder, his chest puffing out as he drags his feet closer and closer to Irene until he almost grabs her collar. Seulgi is in a defensive stance, about to get in-between the two of them as Irene stays in a relaxed posture. Before anything happens you lay a hand on Taehyung's shoulder and drag him back towards you and eventually out to the hallway.

Closing the office door, you begin to speak to Taehyung outside.

"What the hell was that?" You whisper shout at him.

"I don't like the way she looks at you." He blurts out with his arms crossed at his chest.

"What does that mean?" Taehyung fumbles out his response to your question.

"W-Well, can't you see? God, there's such an evil glint in her eye. I swear she's up to no good. Like you said, she's unpredictable! We can't trust her!" He extends one of his arms, using his hand to point back into the room where Irene was. He reaches out for you, taking your hand in his with a pleading look. "Don't you think this is too sudden? Don't you have any ounce of worry?"

You stare at your underboss, perplexed. Recently it felt like Taehyung doubted all of your orders. His acts of defiance, of distrust, were starting to get to you. What the hell was he trying to pull? Most of all Taehyung had always been good at his job, never causing tantrums like this. A person can't just lose their cool like that in this business.

"I honest to god don't understand your little outburst Taehyung, but you better not keep this up. Get your shit together." You turn your body to enter back into the office, deciding not to give it another thought. Eventually you hear Taehyung's footsteps behind you as he joins you back into the office.

You sit in your chair again, not sure how to address what just transpired. Luckily though it seemed like both Irene and Seulgi didn't care much. Seulgi continued the meeting like nothing happened, pulling up some notes about who to prioritize watching and talking to.

You try to pay attention, you really do. You take a look at her notes. Nod along as she speaks. But you can't help but to have your mind wander back and back to the scene of Taehyung yelling. The more you thought about it the more disturbed you were.

One of the most important parts of running your business was making sure people listened. That people obeyed you. As the boss you need a tight grip on everything and everyone. Taehyung's sudden insubordination was cause for concern, and these concerns are usually dealt with disciplining. A punishment.

Could you really punish Taehyung though? He's one of, if not the only real friend you have in this world. You've never really had to lay down any serious consequences for him. This is hard to think about, maybe you shouldn't think about it at all. Leave it in the backburner.

No. You can't, because if you don't address it now who knows what will happen later down the line.

"Well, what do you think?" Irene is looking at you intensely, waiting for a reply. You stay silent for a second, perhaps a second too long, and then you respond.

"I think that's agreeable, yes." You nod aggressively and just hope it was an appropriate answer. Maybe it wasn't as Irene just sighs and looks away.

"Well, I think this is all we need to talk about for now. I'll contact you later if it's needed, but of course we should keep as much communication to be in-person as possible." As Irene says this Seulgi is already collecting things and leaving the room. Taehyung doesn't seem to want to spend any more time at Irene's place than necessary and also leaves, not bothering to excuse himself to you. You disapprove of his behavior again but let him be by himself.

Getting out of your own chair you almost leave until you hear Irene clear her throat. Turning your head you see a bit of a bemused face on her, her hand covering her mouth.

"What is it?" You ask, completely turning to face her.

"It's just…" Irene clearly found something funny, you just don't know what. You're worried that you did something wrong or embarrassing but as you look at her face she seemed so innocent all of a sudden. Her smile seeming pure. "That boy's just a bit funny, don't you think?"

"Boy? He's a fully grown man, you know." Irene's choice of words seem funny to you.

"But he really acts like a boy doesn't he? I could hear him in the hallway." You certainly feel embarrassed now and quickly apologize.

"Oh I'm sorry, Irene. I don't know what's up with him recently but I'll deal with him properly. Please also know that the way he acts and talks about you doesn't reflect my feelings." Irene seems to have regained her stone-cold composure when she responds.

"Of course, of course. I was meaning to ask though if you'd like to have dinner again soon." You're surprised that Irene asked. It would be expected that the two of you would meet up more frequently to discuss matters, but the invitation still threw you off.

"Wanna cool down with a walk?" She asks you. You lazily nod your head, following behind as your friend, Joohyun.

She takes you outside the building, continuing to walk hand in hand on the sidewalk. You don't know where you're going, but frankly you don't care. Joohyun's mere presence is enough for you to calm down, to feel comfortable and safe. So you take the time to enjoy the feeling of her hand in yours, the night air passing by your skin, and the sound of your footsteps against the pavement. The silence between the two of you making you feel happy.

Eventually the two of you reach a swing set. She let's go of your hand and sits on one, tilting her head to tell you to sit on the one next to her. You go ahead and sit down, gently kicking the ground to create a soft sway. Joohyun does the same with her two hands holding onto the chains holding up the seat. You stare at your feet until Joohyun speaks up again.

"Look up at the sky. It's beautiful, isn't it?" You listen to her command and turn your head up.

You're quite literally star-struck for a moment, a smile appearing on your face as you admire the sky. You've seen the sky and the stars nearly every day of your life. It's the same sky as always, yet somehow on this night it stir something inside you.

"Sometimes I forget how good it is to be living, I let all the beautiful things pass me by." You admit to your friend. You stop looking at the sky, instead turning to face Joohyun. Your eyes follow the outline her side profile as you admire the amazement glazing over her eyes, the curve of her nose, the way her lips pursed together. The nighttime casts her in darkness but the moon gives her an ethereal glow. She stops looking at the stars to give you a smile similar to yours, a smile filled with endearment.

"It's nice isn't it? I come here a lot, just to recollect myself most of the time. It's my space. One where I can exist without worry, without trying to change myself." She says it as she recalls the many nights where she wanted to cry, the nights where she found herself walking here without thinking about it. "I wanted to share it with you though. You seem more stressed recently..." Her soft voice suddenly became laced with worry. You sigh before you start talking again.

"I guess I'm getting bad at hiding it." You try to joke. "I've been training for so long, you know? I've seen so many people leave. So many switch companies, so many debut. Sometimes I wonder if the last several years have been a waste. I don't wanna grow up with this kind of regret." Joohyun looks down dejectedly for a bit at your response.

"I know." She whispers. "I've been feeling the same thing. Sometimes I doubt I even belong. I don't know if this dream is achievable anymore."

You look down, not quite sure what you could possibly say to comfort the both of you. As another wave of silence envelopes the conversation, you kick a nearby pebble, watching it skid as you begin to launch yourself off the ground harder. You feel weightless as you get higher and higher, a little free even, from this restrictive life you live.

Joohyun sticks to the ground, not enjoying the idea of being at such a high height. Still, she begins to smile at the sight of you having at least some sort of fun. Things continue like this, the both of you contemplating different things in the silence under the same worries.

"Hey Y/N." Joohyun breaks the silence by calling for you. You're still staring at the stars as you swing in the air.

"What?"

"Slow down for a minute." You listen to your friend and start to slow down your momentum. When you're finally settled, Joohyun leans over from her swing with her hand out. She has her pinky finger raised while you look at her in confusion. "How about we do it?"

"Do what?"

"Let's complete our dreams. Together." You chuckle a bit at her sudden childish-ness that was different from her mature nature. Despite how out of character it was though, you couldn't help but feel appreciative for the act anyways. You stick out your hand and wrap your pinky around hers.

"Alright. Our little promise, between just the two of us."

"I know I can do it if I have you by my side." A pink hue paints itself on Joohyun's cheeks, complimenting the adorable smirk she gave you. Your heart pounds a little and you laugh at her.

"Since when were you so childish and greasy?"

"I don't know, since whenever it could make you smile like that?" You look away, feeling warmth flood your face.

"Whatever." You scoff light-heartedly.

For the past several weeks you felt like you were in a rut. Motivation draining away from you. Your promise with Joohyun though, her words, her loving voice, everything about her made you want to stay. Perhaps now you can complete your dream.

*

*

You're waiting in line, a smile is plastered on your face that you can't seem to wipe off. Finally, you can see her again.

You can still remember the day she told you she would debut. There was a part of your heart that hurt, but otherwise you were ecstatic for her. Of course out of consideration she tried not to talk about it much, but you assured her it was something that was worth celebrating. That it was an event and feeling you wanted to share between the two of you.

Things didn't turn out as planned. You kept training, but seeing Joohyun debut with seemingly no results for another year was disheartening enough to make you quit. It also didn't help that as Joohyun got busier, the two of you got to talk and hang out less and less. Everyday you would compulsively check your phone, only to be gifted a response on a rare occasion.

After your trainee years you moved on in your life, getting a higher education and joining a career that you found pleasure in. As you focused on your career though, you also found yourself with less and less time. It seemed like at some point Joohyun changed her number and forgot to tell you. For some reason it left you feeling a bit heartbroken. Although she wasn't really a part of your life anymore your memories with her graced your thoughts often.

Now though, as time has passed, your work life has settled down more. You've earned some money and took some vacation time to attend a very, very important event.

The person in front of you finally moves and you're face to face with Yerim, a girl you spent a lot of time with under the same company. She looks up at you with a smile and a face filled with both surprise and recognition. She signs your album before gently nudging the member next to her.

You move on in the line to meet Seulgi. She's happy that Yerim caught her attention to tell her you were here. She gives you a familiar smile and thanks you for coming to see the group. You get your album signed by her and two other members who you didn't get acquainted with during training until you reach the end of the table.

There she was, Bae Joohyun, the person you were closest with during those grueling years training. As soon as you're standing in front of her your heart threatens to jump out of your throat. When your eyes meet you almost feel like crying.

"Hey." You barely get the word to leave your mouth. The sound could hardly escape the tightening of your throat. Judging by the look on her face, it seemed like Joohyun was overwhelmed with feelings too, nearly wanting to cry. Instead she gives a light laugh.

"I've missed you." She says. Maybe it's in your imagination, but she's staring at you so dreamily. You don't know what to say, so you decide to just be honest.

"I've missed you too. I've been waiting for this day." You pause for a second before continuing. "I'm sorry I didn't make it." Joohyun shakes her head at your apology.

"Don't be. As long as you're happy with where you are now then I'm happy too." She gives you her signature smile that had always managed to comfort you.

"Let's make a new promise." Once again she sticks out her pinky finger at you. You take it without hesitation. "Let's talk. Like old times." Even though you haven't talked to each other properly in years, the feeling of her pinky and yours made you feel just as close as you were back in those days.

The staff are ushering you to go, the moment the two of you were sharing was holding up the line for too long. Quickly, Joohyun signs your album and you notice that she opens it and scribbles something inside. Could she have possibly written a message for you?

When go arrive home you admire the album with signatures strewn across it. The question that you had for the entire day though was what Joohyun wrote inside of it. Within the privacy of your home you finally felt safe to open and check.

xxx-xxx-xxxx