pretty pretty 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁

saerom hums. “it’ll take some time to adjust to everything,” she says with a smile. “it’s hard work, but i would like to think that it’s all worth it in the end.”

“right,” yerim says nodding at saerom’s words and giving her a smile before she goes back to eating her ice cream. “there’s so much that i’ve learned already so it must be worth it. even if i don’t get to debut...” yerim chokes on her words for a moment but composes herself with a clearing of her throat to continue. “at least i’ll learned something and at least i’ll have made friends.”

yerim really never paints her own nails-- at least not since she was in middle school and she was using recalled polish from claire’s. she usually saved her nails for the technicians who are trained to make her nails look better than they are but lately, with training she doesn’t have time or energy to keep up her nail routine. when seokwoo asks to practice his skills, she’s more than happy to let him paint over her boring natural nails. 

“yeah, just some things to keep our energy up,” yerim says after being almost scrunched in a surprisingly winding hug from somi. she’d not really talked to somi since the mga’s but she remembers her face, remembers being not so friendly to her. however, since then, she likes to think she’s changed and being in somi’s presence was almost refreshing because she’s so positive and by the looks of it, forgiving. yerim smiles at her softly and sighs a little as she looks to nayeon who’s talking about cookies. 

yerim’s always believed in family-- the way that families can be more than just one thing and almost never are the perfect nuclear one that you’d see on children’s shows or read about in books growing up. no, family can take any shape and be anything, as long as there is love and respect. yerim’s family is not normal-- she’s adopted and she’s known it since she was old enough to understand and grasp that concept. sure, she had a mother and a father, siblings, but they weren’t related to her by blood. her parents chose her among, her brothers and sister and together, they became a family. 

when she came to korea, she felt disconnected and it scared her. but soon enough, everything fell into place; heejin, jiwoo, jaemin, saebom, soojin, and then meeting her real sister, jihyo, by happenstance. it was as if, no matter where one ends up, as long as they’re willing, a family can be found anywhere. now that she was in sphere with luna, eve, saerom, she believed that to really be true. these could be the girls that she’d possibly debut with and they all meant the world to her now-- a team that needed to keep together if they were ever going to be successful.

yerim nods listening to eve speak more about how time seems to not only fly by but catch up to her. it’s something to keep in mind when she thinks about dedicating time to a company because as much as yerim wants to keep her wit together and keep loyal to her time put into this, her dream was so elusive for so long that she was already making other plans for the many years ahead of her. she can’t help but think that in the end, four years, going on five, with no promise debut, she’d want to again, rethink her decision. 

     while she still felt she needed a bit more time to fully warm up to her impending future training under trc, heejin did her best not to let her thoughts distract her from her current task. however, it’s difficult not to get distracted and resist the temptation of wrapping her arms around the other girl once she’s in heejins sights, a smile blooming on her lips instantly, so she doesn’t— with open arms and unending warmth, she pulls yerim in for a tight hug once she’s close enough. “yerm,” she speaks happily, pulling away slowly as she pulls a flyer from the stack she’s carrying. “i guess i’m official now— wanna take one of these and help lil ol’ me out?” her tone is playful, and as her eyes widen to mimic the look of a puppies, she holds out a flyer loosely.

“of course, i think so,” yerim says nudging saerom again. “i don’t lie, even when it’s probably beneficial for me.” she gives a small huff of a laugh and looks down to her fingernails, staring at the gap in the acrylic where her naked fingernail is showing slightly. she looks over to saerom again, smiling and keeping her head up high. 

she has to understand these doubts saerom is having because she’s been in the same position. failing all of her previous auditions only brought her the success to be here and meeting saerom, reconnecting with luna, and getting to see her sister everyday was so worth the hardship that she had endured. 

“is there something brewing in your life?” yerim says raising an eyebrow and looking to her sister with an amused look. “are you going to tell me or do i have to force it out of you, hm? wait, lemme guess. you’ve won an all inclusive cruise and you’re taking me with you?” yerim lets out a laugh and keeps walking, bent on trying one of the ramen restaurants nearby the sphere building. 

“oh, of course,” she says nodding. “you are definitely the defining person to inspire my looks. i’d be nothing without you.” yerim knows that jihyo has an issue with even thinking about their birth father and for yerim, she’s learned to compartmentalize and deal with him only in terms of biology and when realizing she has a whole other person that shares part of her dna. but to her, he’s not family and there’s no point in calling him her father when she already has one that could never be topped or replaced.