Kibum's heart races as he sees Eunji for the first time in years.

Except she doesn't really see him. She's scanning for him throughout her performance, but she hasn't been able to locate him through the lights and darkened faces. 

But he sees her: so graceful, talented and captivating. 

He had imagined this moment before, seeing Eunji take the stage with her powerful vocals. He had always knew upon hearing her what she was capable of. 

But this was nothing like he'd pictured it. He believed that the first time he'd see Eunji debut on stage would be when he met her following the show with a bouquet of sunflowers and cheek kisses. 

That won't be the case tonight.

He looks frantically at Amandla, who glances up at him with concerned honey brown eyes, then over to Taemin and Naeun, whose stares express an equal amount of concern. 

It doesn't take him long to piece it all together. Taemin and Naeun set him up. 

But why they would decide to torture him by placing him in Eunji's presence, he isn't sure. 

"I imagine we need to talk," Kibum leans over to whisper into Taemin's ear. 

Taemin looks forward at the stage, nods and gulps his answer.

It's impossible for Kibum to enjoy the show. 

There are many mixed emotions doing a dance similar to the musical's ensemble. He doesn't know whether to be angry or sad, or nervous about Amandla, since leaving abruptly would cause her to ask questions.

He settles on stewing in anger, hating having been forced into this situation in the first place. Kibum has a very short temper, much to the knowledge of his friends, and yet...

"Just the girl from the mountain, something different, an adventure you dared enter. 

Now that you've found your peace, harvesting sweet memories, I still remain, where you've no use for me."

Eunji whispers out these last lines over a lone violin. 

And somehow those words feel haunting in this moment, where the past is in the presence of the present. 

The theater goes dark and the curtains close, signaling the end of the show. 

Sudden applause bounces from wall to wall and the lights slowly turn on to make the attendees visible to one another.

Cheerful music sounds and the cast of the musical rushes out to take their bows. 

The last to appear is Eunji. 

She smiles from ear to ear, partly excited about the conclusion of their opening night and partly anixous to meet up with her friends who she knows is waiting backstage for her.

Except she's more eager to see Kibum. To hear what he thought after all of that time of pushing her to pursue her singing. 

After all of this time, the first and only person she cares about being around is the same man she hasn't seen in years. 

She rushes off of the stage, where arms of backstage crew are outstretched to pull off parts of her costume.

She's down to her slip by the time she reaches her dressing room.

Eunji swipes the caked on makeup from her face with a wipe, throws on her t-shirt and jeans, and picks up her coat splayed over a chair.

She retireves her phone from her jacket pocket to call Naeun, but before she goes to dial, she stops in her tracks to read Naeun's distress text sent almost two hours ago. 

What happened?

She doesn't waste another second. Eunji dials Naeun's number and Naeun answers on the second ring. 

"Eunji, can you hear me?"

The trepidation in Eunji's voice is obvious as each second brings her closer to seeing Kibum once again. 

"I-I can hear you, where are you?"

"Eunji, I-I have to tell you something, I'm not sure...I don't think..."

Eunji is growing impatient with Naeun's incomplete sentences.

"Naeun, can you spit it out?"

"Uh, Key, he, er...he left early," Naeun responds. 

Eunji's heart sinks.

He left early during her debut show? Was it hard for him to see me up there? Was the time as difficult for him as it was for me?

"Well, did he say anything before he-," Eunji stops midsentence, and soon she feels as though every other one of her limbs are stopping too. 

Are her eyes deceiving her?

"Eunji, Eunji!" Naeun's voice soon blends with the chaos surrounding her. 

Eunji takes one small step towards the sight. And then another.

Another.

Until she's close enough to tap his shoulder. 

Before she fully gains the courage, a woman Eunji doesn't recognize, sticking out among the majority of the people in the room, a slender brown-skin woman with big, gorgeous curly hair falling past her shoulders, appears to greet Kibum.

The little black dress she wears hugs her in all the right places. 

But Eunji's attention doesn't stay on the woman's appearance. 

It focuses on this woman emerging from the women's restroom to grab Kibum's hand. 

"Let's go," Kibum says with urgency.

Eunji coughs, but not on purpose. 

She hadn't realized how dry and throat had gotten. 

Kibum's head snaps in the direction of the cough and his face turns in horror. 

The moment he was working hard to avoid was now staring him squarely in the face. 

Neither of them have the words.

The woman with Kibum does, however. 

"You were so brilliant up there! I can't believe we're bumping into the star of the show! Are you starstruck, honey? Your bottom lip is practically dragging." 

Kibum looks to the woman, closes his mouth and shakes his head furiously. 

Eunji stands there, heart breaking with each passing moment. 

It feels like it's going on forever. 

She thought reading the letters was difficult. 

She couldn't even begin to piece together this pain. 

"Uh, Amandla, this is Eunji," Kibum says almost inaudibly. 

Amandla rolls her eyes playfully.

"I know that, honey. It's in the playbill. What are the odds? We almost weren't able to get in and now we're meeting the star! Did I tell you how talented you are? My goodness, you had me in tears all throughout the night." 

"No, Amandla," Kibum says through clenched teeth. "I know Eunji. Taemin, Naeun and I, we're all...friends," he says that last word in absence of a better descriptor. 

"Oh, well now I'm embarrassed," Amandla giggles, moving in closer to Kibum. "That makes sense about the free tickets then. How fortunate are you guys to know someone so gifted?" 

"Eunji, um...this is-," Kibum starts but is interrupted. 

"Nice to meet you," Eunji sticks her hand out for Amandla to shake. "And thank you so much for coming and enjoying the show. I ought to get going now, though. You guys have a goodnight!"

While she tried to come off as pleasant as possible, Eunji stops caring about it as she escapes such a brutal moment of humiliation. 

She isn't even sure she understands what happened.

Heart in , Eunji blindly moves through the crowd until she reaches the back door.

She fumbles with the loose cigarette still in her jacket pocket, fixes it between her lips and lights it as she steps into the night.