bird cage

heejin’s eyes were squinted as she tried to adjust the phone on the stand so it would perfectly catch both her and haeun. once she was satisfied with the angle, she bopped her way back to the couch and plopped herself down.

“is it working? can you guys hear me?” she asked with a grin, waving in the direction of the camera as she slid her own phone over to her friend so she could start analyzing the comments. “we’re sans staff today. at least, until they find us, at least.”

she made her expression playfully mischievous for a second, dramatically raising a single finger to her lips to indicate their very public and online live should remain a secret. it’s why she named it ‘super secret live’, after all. but she relaxed again quickly and let out a laugh reaching for her drink once she was sure everything was working correctly. 

“so. how was your day? i wanna hear about it. me and haeun were super busy, but i’m sure we can dive into that  a little more later on.”

truth be told, she was jittery. it still shocked her at times that she was really back at work again after so long. they couldn’t give out much, but she’d always loved letting slip spoilers that wouldn’t be recognized as such until the album came out. walking the line made both her and the fans excited, so she never saw much harm in it. 

her managers always felt differently.

the main vocalist makes some cute and funny faces to the camera while heejin is still adjusting everything, trying to keep their lovely lovebugs entertained while the other made sure that all the angle of the phone is catching both of them comfortably. and she can't help the soft giggle that escapes her lips when the other comments about the secrecy of their vlive and the fact that there are no staff around to try to supervise their live, at least for now. "please don't snitch on us" haeun adds her own comment to it with a wink, but it's more playful than anything considering that there was little the fans could actually do to alert the staff on them and she's almost sure they don't want that anyway.

"yeah. it was very busy but it was also so much fun." she sighs softly, the smile never leaving her lips. "we got to do things that we haven't done in a while." and of course haeun leaves it vague, leaves it as it could be almost anything especially when it's about her and heejin with her little history of sneaking out of yuseong to take breaks from the company's strict regimen and sometimes just because. but it also could mean what it actually means, that they're finally preparing for a proper comeback and one that they had much more creativity freedom than before.

he’d sworn he’d heard haeni talk about her sister–no matter how briefly she had been mentioned to him in their trainee days, the idea that he had of jung haeun as described by her sister was almost something incomprehensible. he’d thought of haeun as someone hard, rigid, controlling and incapable of compromising, and so–when haeun from ladybug turns up in front of him, arms crossed and a judgemental look etched upon her features, the first thing he does is stand there and let his jaw drop, attempting to register and draw the two lines between the fact that she was the haeun that haeni had been talking about all those years ago.

“uh.”he blabbed as stupidly as anyone in his shoes ever would, especially when confronted with ladybug’s goddess right in the face. long haired, sharp gazed and with an intensely grumpy charisma…hyuk couldn’t help but chuckle lightly to himself, it seemed that both haeun and haeni had something similar in terms of their rather..demanding presences, whenever they wanted to. 

“sorry, but..you’re haeni’s sister?” he asked, a disbelieving bark of laughter passing through his lips. “no way. haeni always said that you were like a wooden block that never understood her–never would i have ever equated the prettiest face in ladybug being the sister that she was talking about.” he crossed his arms, lips clamped together slightly as he thought to himself about how he’d pretty much never heard or saw haeun care for haeni during their trainee days. “and some sister you are, considering that i’ve never really seen you care for haeni or anything back during trainee days in yuseong.” he muttered. 

the face of ladybug knows that she hasn't been a good sister, but she's trying now and she'll be damned that if she lets anything happen to haeni when she's finally around and trying to make amends.

haeun raises an eyebrow at hyuk's words, at the laught that the other dares to do right in front of her face and perhaps if it were someone else those words would sting, would hurt her, would be a reminder of how long that she has neglected haeni while she was too busy dealing with her own things and trying to get over her own issues instead of being a good sister that the other deserved. but in the end this comes from a person that didn't even know the relationship between her and haeni, comes from someone from her little sister's life that would do better to stay out of it.

perhaps if it was some other context, if hyuk was different, then maybe haeun would even sympathize a little with him.

but well, this is not the case so haeun doesn't feel anything but annoyance towards the other idol and the only urge that haeun feels about hyuk is to make him go away because hyuk clearly doesn't know even half of what happens between her and haeni anyway. "that's very rich," she says in a very pleasant tone, smile on her lips like she's being friendly even though her words suggest anything but. "coming from someone who knows how much of haeni's life again? doesn't seem like much considering you don't even know who her sister is."

"also i'm sorry," and haeun keeps going becaus she feels like being petty. "i'm sure wishbone isn't that small that they can't afford some interns now so you don't need to look after ours if you need anything."

     it was getting time for her sister to get on stage and to perform, and she’s hurriedly  squeezing through the crowd, today had been busier than she had anticipated. she knew what attraction the event would bring in but had never expected to be this tired and worn out so soon. she makes it to backstage, spots her sister and quickly paces over to the other, a hand over her chest as she’s breathing rather heavily. her knee was holding up, just barely but enough to keep her going for another few hours before she would have to knock out on the coach for a few hours and resume work at a later time. she just hopes that management wouldn’t get too mad at her for it. 

     she straightens herself up after having caught her breath for a moment, turning to haeun finally, “sorry, i had to help another group.” she’s quick to straighten the other’s attire, making sure her sister’s outfit sat correctly and there’s a sombre tint glazing over her own hues. she pauses for a moment, unsure as to why she would suddenly feel this way, it was her sister’s turn to perform, she should be happy and readily cheering the other on. yet, here she was, melancholy surrounding her. she averts her gaze for a moment, collecting herself before moving to adjust the other’s stray strand of hair. 

usually just spending time with the staff backstage, with her other members are enough to sooth her, to calm her down and keep her from getting those nerves out of control. but this time what mellows down not only her nerves but also any sort of excitement that she could feel due to the performance, is guilt. it's not something that she feels that often these days because she and haeni are in a much better place now than they were years ago, when everything went downhill, but sometimes she can't help but feel bad because haeun chose the idol path because she wanted a way out of her mother's control and haeni actually wanted an idol career, had true passion to stand on a stage and put up a show.

it's not fair, haeun thinks, that once again she's the one in the spotlight while once again haeni is pushed to the side. it's not fair, haeun thinks, that once again she's the one that gets to live a dream that isn't even hers.

usually that guilt is easy to ignore because haeun comforted herself thinking that haeni seemed to be fine, resigned to it at this point and seemed more than happy about haeun, about living her dream through her older sister, but today guilt involves her chest in a tight embrace and doesn't let it go, forms a heavy lump on the pit of her stomach that won't let haeun settle, because the older jung sister can sense that the other's melancholy and she doesn't know what to do, how to make that better.

"that's ok, you arrived just on time" haeun reassures her sister anyway, stays still while the other fixes her clothes and hair and she'll stand by that, won't let haeni get scolded when she was there just in time, especially considering the condition of her knee.

"thank you." haeun accepts the praise awkwardly, stiffly, not really feeling like she deserves it. "how is your knee? you're not pushing yourself too hard, right?" and maybe this isn't the exact right time to bring this up, now when haeni seems upset about it, not when haeun is upset about haeni being upset and on top of that there's only minutes before haeun is supposed to be on stage, but she doesn't know what else to do, what else to ask.