𓇢𓆸

areum pauses to stare up at jaeyoon, her face thoughtful. "but i think the better question would be... are you good? for someone supposedly celebrating a comeback, the mood is a bit off..."

tonight, he chooses recklessness.

the alcohol helps too when he's pouring down the glass that now tastes bitter — he attributes that to her. alcohol clouding his judgement, and the remnants of the pull away now lingering on his skin.

he knows better than to act like this. but mind over matter's no longer a factor, and anonymity's long been thrown out the window. there's no room to hit pause when he's pressed on the gas pedal, sealing away each action with the brazen smirk that follows suit when he stares down with an unyielding gaze.

jaeyoon shakes his head (because maybe tonight — trouble's just what he's been asking for). years building onto the hinges of his own self-restraint, and unsettled doubt now toss to the back of tomorrow's worries. tonight, he'll allow himself the benefit of the doubt to be unhinged, immune to the judgement eyes and peering stares surrounding them.

"i always ask for trouble. don't i, areum?" he lets himself bite further into the lack of formalities, blurring the edges of what's black and white. there's a gray area, and he wants to make it clear: there's no real backing out now. "i finished some performance, and i'm having a good time. i had a drink, and now i'm talking to you — is there a better time i could be having?"

(there's no real answer to the question. evidence is already written plain and clear.)

because when he sees areum, what she personalizes herself into is a breath of fresh air. compounded by the heaviness of the night and the coattails of the hectic piling of schedules in front of him, she gives him the schoolboy bliss that he's lost throughout the process. clearview picture, and the tight-rope thoughts of what happens when he catches himself off-balance and right in her periphery.

"no, no praise. i just wanted to see you."

well, shit. he doesn't know how he'll handle the aftermath, now.

so it's laughable, really, how a dimpled smile and an honest word from jaeyoon is enough to sweep something fragile and fluttering through her chest. she lets it fly past, glinting prettily in the corner of her vision, without daring to examine it more.

"it's good to see you too," areum says quietly, so soft it would have been swallowed by the noise of the room if they hadn't been standing so close already. she matches him truth for truth, a slow smile spreading across her features—her first real one of the night—and nudges him gently with her elbow. the touch is intentional. playful and platonic—a speed bump raised reflexively against this feeling like they're racing each other to recklessness, like she's driving fast into unknown territory, one turn away from careening off the edge when she still doesn't know if she's ready to fall.

as someone who's always lived with two feet planted firmly to the ground, weightlessness is an unsettling prospect. a rush that areum gets a taste of every time jaeyoon hits the accelerator and looks at her like that.

areum holds his gaze briefly before looking away. "with how busy you are, it's been getting harder to see your face."

areum raises her flute of water to her lips, smiling meaningfully when he asks what she's been doing since the last time they met. how long has it been again? since their last bookclub meeting, surely... which would make it around the time she started making plans for her next comeback...

"oh, you know, it's the usual for me. i've been working," areum begins lightly, almost teasingly. she takes a small sip and meets his eyes over the rim of the glass. "my next project's going to lean heavily r&b," she explains. "and since it's a different sound from my usual image, i've been exploring the musical scene a bit. expanding my horizons..." areum grins something sharp and secretive. "going to places that half the people in this room would pay good money to catch me leave... for research purposes, of course. how else would i be able to capture the right vibe?"

hi, idols! as an apology for the pause in operations on the main and the lack of monthly schedules, we come bearing gifts... an ask meme! this isn't the honesty hour that was mentioned a while back (as that will be used as part of our next event), but we think it'll still be lots of fun. check under the cut for all the details!

however, a positive has come out of the whole thing—hyorin gets to spend the day with areum. she's never very secretive about her love and support for the older artist as she was a big, big fan of the music she put out. whenever she went on live, she couldn't stop raving about her songs or even singing along to them. truthfully, she had the career that hyorin sort of dreamed of as a soloist if ydh were to ever give her a chance.

"i didn't think cherry blossom could actually be a flavor," she admitted before gently taking the cookie that'e been offered to her. "i'm guessing it'll just be pretty sweet?" with that, she breaks off a piece of the cookie and tosses it into her mouth. nodding, her guess had been proven correct. the cookie was mostly just a sugar cookie, but she wasn't too surprised seeing at how well-decorated it was.

hyorin quickly shakes her head at areum's words, offering her a gentle smile. "oh, i'm not the most talkative person either. i probably should've made more of an effort myself." if she were to be completely honest, she was actually kind of nervous. she's always wanted to become friends with areum, but now that she was thrown in a situation where she could, she didn't know what to say.

"we're preparing for one too," she replies, nodding. "the date hasn't been finalized yet, but the next full album is projected to be released sometime this quarter."

areum pauses, catching herself slipping too much into the tone she uses in team meetings and press conferences and feeling the need to adjust. in a lot of ways, professionalism is a comfort zone for her, familiar territory she knows how to navigate. areum knows that if she wanted, this could be where she draws the line, keeping hyorin at arms length and at a distance of polite, predictable encounters—bowed greeting in elevators and company corridors, the occasional shout-out on livestreams and radio shows—all falling under the category of friendly colleagues that would at minimum satisfy fans and pr managers alike.

but a part of her hesitates at the thought of stopping here.

it's true that to an extent, areum still feels awkward around the members of angelix, having trained in their debut lineup all those years ago. she'll be the first to admit that she hadn't been the warmest trainee to them back then—closing herself off to everything but the competition and pulling away even more once their paths to debut diverged.

but despite all that, hyorin had always been someone who areum remembers as exuding gentleness and warmth, quietly carrying a sweetness like the furled buds of a spring tree—one breath away from blossoming. in waiting rooms, scrolling through her phone as she monitored her feed, areum had watched the clips her fans sent her of hyorin singing along to her songs and had felt her sincerity then—the open, uncomplicated appreciation hyorin had for her music, expressed wholeheartedly and without an ounce of reserve. areum had wanted to respond in some way back then but wasn't sure where—or how—to begin.

an idea comes to her now.

cigarette dead on the heels of his boots, he exhales what's left of the smoke remaining inside of his lungs. the nicotine daze is a figment of a paradox when the post-show high becomes engulfed in the magnetic disorientation of too many glasses of whiskey on the rocks. the night already sets the scene for a myriad of tomorrow's troubles, and he's already fleeing the scene — mishandling his steps, walking back towards the periphery of a dead-beat crowd.

it's the first thing he notices. too much time and too many superficial conversations that don't begin to touch the cusp of the remaining time left in the scene.

what joo jaeyoon wants, is something of substance.

that substance, just happens to fall in the form of another glass of the hakata whiskey on the rocks, he motions to the bartender with the taps of his finger against the table. he bides his time scanning the scene, calculative enough to avoid any unwanted intrusions to add to tomorrow's worries, and well enough that amidst the haze of it all, emerges someone that feels strangely welcoming.

he slips his drink from the table — a quick nod of thanks to the bartender before hitting the beeline straight away.

"areum." his words unfold, slowly slurring together. there's another calculative pull, dropping the noona, pulling her into a quick one-armed hug — while he's at it, he'll blame that on the alcohol, too.

"glad to see you here." one quick glance, and he'd be ignorant to not read between the lines that maybe, something's off their realm of normalcy. for a second, he contemplates ignorance — but even drunken morals still stand firm.

it's only when areum makes eye contact with jaeyeoon across the room that she snaps back to the present.

in a matter of moments, she excuses herself politely from the conversation happening at her side to meet him in the middle of the floor.

jaeyoon's coming from the bar, of course, and she doesn't need to check the glass of amber liquid in his hand to know that it's japanese whiskey on his breath as he pulls her into a hug and skips the honorifics in his slurred greeting. the familiar scent of cigarette smoke and woody perfume wraps her briefly in a cloud before she steps out of his hold—the movement a bit too quick for it to be natural.

but it's true that she's been thrown off balance. equally caught by surprise at his public display of closeness (areum sees a flash go off in the corner of her vision) as she is with him addressing her by name—marking another type of closeness areum had not expected to hear.

in all her years of knowing him, she's found that jaeyoon can be many things—some of them contradictory—but she does not know him to be careless.

there is a line here that's being pushed. deliberately tested. stretched taut and plucked and the note rings out between them—bold and uncertain.

she doesn't hate the sound of it.

despite not having a sip of alcohol all night, areum feels her ears grow warm.

"cheeky." she clicks her tongue and tries to cover being flustered for annoyance, narrowing her eyes as she steps closer again.

"joo jaeyoon, you're just asking for trouble..." she pokes his chest with the tip of her finger, then lowers her hand towards his, suddenly craving a drink and briefly entertaining the intrusive thought of just taking the glass in his hand and raising it to her lips as everyone in the industry watches the unlikely pair. "pull it together..."

at the mention of his album, areum raises her brow. "oh is this why you're here? did you come find me to get praised?"

irrespective of the small smirk playing on her features, her response is sincere and direct. "i thought it was a high quality comeback. perfectly produced, as expected, with a well-chosen title track. i can already see the trending shorts..."