best part

“okay, okay!” she laughed, squeezing jaemi’s leg. jiyoung obviously didn’t think it was creepy; it was sweet that seeing her bitmoji made him happy, and that he stopped to watch her interviews. “it’s not creepy. it’s sweet and it makes me happy that i make you happy.” it was still a little hard for her to wrap her head around the fact that she made anyone else happy sometimes. the thought alone of forgetting her dances was enough to mortify her. “oh no, i could never. even though my teacher tells me i don’t have to keep going over them, i’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“i would rather not,” she laughed back. “think of the trouble, that is. half an hour in reality is like two days in jaemi’s mischief time.” nodding, she picked up her things from the corner and started toward the door. “i’m sure. he told me he could just wing it if he needed to, but i don’t think it’s quite that easy.”

jiyoung smiled at her, “oh, congratulations.” she hadn’t caught much of the show, admittedly, but she could only imagine how much work the trainees had put in to get into the final group. “you guys seem to be doing pretty well.... i’m glad everything is working out. you all put in so much work.”

“sasaeng incidences?” she parroted, eyes widening. crazy fans weren’t something she’d ever had (at least, not that she’d known of), but it always made her nervous to hear about people overstepping boundaries like that. 

“oh, of course,” she replied with a bow. “there were a couple things left in here when i came in, i moved them over next to the stereo so they didn’t get lost or broken. i think there was a phone there.”

“i don’t think there’s a way to make that not sound creepy....” she murmured, though she was smiling over at him. “i’m sure bitmoji jaemi is very charismatic and could make a new bitmoji best friend.” jiyoung shook her head gently. “just brushing up. even though i don’t really have anything coming up, i don’t want to get rusty.”

“i thought your outfit today looked nice,” jiyoung offered with a frown. she never claimed to understand fashion by and large, but she didn’t see what taesuk had done to warrant being asked to change. “did it violate some sort of dress code?”

jiyoung nodded, a small smile emerging. it was hard to remain so stoic when the people around her seemed so lively. “my music won’t distract you?”

“if you’re sure....” she answered, words coming out slowly. her hesitance was clear, but she placed her phone back onto the speaker. “i can go if you need the room.”

jiyoung shook her head, pushing her bangs away from her face. “i don’t, i’m sorry,” she replied. “we were going to meet for lunch, but that was--” she took a look at her phone that she’d grabbed from the speaker. “twenty-five minutes ago. he mentioned something about going over his lines for idol project, though?”

“pizza sounds good,” she answered, standing up and stretching slightly. eating out where there might be a crowd sounded less good; regardless of being an idol, jiyoung wasn’t fond of being in a crowd. “we can try there and if it’s busy, maybe we can order and come back here to eat?”

“exactly, right now probably isn’t the best time.” she let out a small sigh in relief, glad to have deferred the topic for at least a little while. “pets can be hard to have when you’re busy all the time.”

jiyoung was already well on the way to getting her things together and getting out of there when she stopped long enough to look at who had walked in. it took her a few moments, but she was pretty sure she recognized the other. “oh, you’re one of the girls who just debuted, right?” she didn’t know very many trainees, and she hadn’t watched very much of idol project, but she’d seen enough that she was almost confident that she recognized sola. “in unity?”

“do you ever get uncomfortable? being alone at every event you go to?” she asked, glancing up at her friend from her notebook. she loved being a soloist and having the ability to perform music that’s always her style, but it got lonely for her. maybe it was just that she was always a little lonely, though. “around all the big groups and everything?”

okay, she could do this. all jiyoung had to do was ask if lucy had ten minutes to listen to what she’d been working on. it wasn’t particularly difficult to track her down, but mustering up the nerve to ask for anything was always a struggle. before she could talk herself out of it, she had to do it. she knocked on the door, bowing when lucy turned to her. “hi, i was just wondering if you had some spare time? i’ve been working on something and i just....wanted a second opinion?”

“you’re ridiculous.” but that didn’t stop her smile from growing, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. “remind me to turn that off.” her heart raced as she reached over to rest her free hand on his leg. even though they’ve been together a while, she still struggled to initiate any kind of physical affection most of the time. “i was just gonna go practice more, probably eat dinner at home. nothing exciting.”

his comment brought out a smile from her. “are you implying you can feel me when we’re in the same building?” she asked as she crosses her legs underneath her. her cheeks flushed; he was right, she was going to. “i don’t want you have to, though.” in her mind, overprepared was still not good enough, and she didn’t want to be a contributing factor to him not being ready. “you really want me to stay?”