With that one reply, Hyuna felt her heart leap into , a tight ball of nervousness and excitement forming in the pit of her stomach. She must’ve been mistaken; there hadn’t been any contact in nearly two years, but she knew that voice, the gentle lilt in that tone, the normally guarded warmth slipping out in familiarity. It had to be her.

Sera.

    Hyuna wanted to talk, reach out to to her friend, but her voice betrayed her, producing only a nearly inaudible squeak. A nearly inaudible squeak that was caught by the caller.

“Hyuna?” Sera asked, the slightest hint of concern coloring her voice.

“Y-yeah, it’s me. Sera?” Hyuna unconsciously whispered, voice cracking with emotions.

    She didn’t know why she asked that. Of course it was Sera. But her heart wasn’t ready to believe it. Or perhaps her heart already did, and it was her mind that was lagging behind; Hyuna wasn’t sure, and she didn’t care either way.

“Mhmm. I’m glad you picked up. I wasn’t sure if you had changed your number,” Sera said, concern leaving her voice, replaced with relief and content.

“Why did you call from an unknown number? Is my contact information for you wrong? Did you change your number and not update me?” Hyuna questioned, hurt lacing her words, making them sharper, more accusatory, than she intended.

An audible pause, then the response. 

“Yes, I changed my number because I didn’t want you to contact me,” Sera deadpanned.

    Hyuna’s heart dropped, the beginning of a curse forming on her lips in retort. Why hadn’t she expected that? They had been coworkers, only coworkers, members of a group whose every image was directed by their company. Only an image.

“I’m joking, Hyuna. I know you believed me,” Sera quickly added in response to Hyuna’s silence.

    The breath that Hyuna had unknowingly held escaped in an indignant huff. The curse, however, remained on her lips as she prepared to verbally assault Sera. She was interrupted by the soft tinkling of Sera’s laughter and the mere sound of it eliminated her anger. Hyuna felt her body relax. She hadn’t realized how tense she had been during the interaction. Sitting down on her bed, she propped herself against the wall.

“I didn’t believe you, you know”, Hyuna casually said.

“Of course you didn’t, “ Sera teased. Hyuna could hear the smile in Sera’s voice, and she couldn’t help but grin as well. 

“But really, how come I don’t have this number saved?”

    Hyuna truly was confused. She secretly prided herself on having the most male celebrity’s numbers - not that she ever contacted them - and it was unusual for her to receive unknown calls. 

“This is mom’s home phone. She’s borrowing my phone while she’s out,” Sera replied. 

“Ah ok, I see. I’ve never received a call from you while you were home so that makes sense. How have you been?” Hyuna moved the conversation along, casually hiding her burning curiosity about Sera’s life post-departure from the group. She knew Sera had been more active on Instagram and her Ryutube during and immediately after her contract termination, but updates had been short of late.

“Good, busy actually. Recently put out a self-produced album. Worked on all parts of it: writing, composing, recording, even the album production and packaging. You know that though, Hyuna. You’re subscribed to my Ryutube and you follow me on Instagram.” Another laugh, bright and cheerful. “I bet you stalked me like a sasaeng fan,” Sera teased once more.

“Yeah,” Hyuna admitted sheepishly, “I’ve been following your accounts. Serenade, spelled using your name. You had a busking event too.”

    She didn’t mention that she had attended Sera’s busking event secretly. Wearing a mask and a cap pulled low over her eyes, Hyuna had pretended to be a casual observer, sticking to the edge of the crowd, far enough to be a person of no interest but close enough to see Sera perform. She had wanted to approach Sera, publicly support her friend and later share their respective lives, but Hyuna knew better. She was proud, so proud, of Sera, and there was no way that she was going to divert attention away from her. It was Sera’s event, Sera’s day to shine, Sera’s time to have the spotlight wholly to herself and cherish it. Hers and hers alone. Hyuna swallowed the lump in as Sera continued to talk, unaware of the wave of the emotions churning inside Hyuna.

“I’ve been keeping up with your promotions too, Drama, Hurt Locker, and Sleepless Night.” Sera listed. “I enjoyed Hurt Locker. It was a good summer concept, different from the rest. And Sleepless Night! I liked the change of pace and the concept; we didn’t have a ballad title before but it worked.

    Hyuna hummed with satisfaction as Sera praised their more recent works. It had been hard recovering from the loss of their main vocal, not to mention Eunji and Lee Sem, but they had returned to a somewhat stable condition as a group. Two more members had been added, and they were fitting in well. As for their fans, many had left with Sera’s departure but they were going through an increase as others became aware of the refocused Nine Muses. Hyuna came back from her train of thoughts to catch the last bit of conversation.

“No more one word title tracks though?”

    Hyuna frowned slightly, contemplating how to answer Sera. It was true that none of their title tracks had continued the previous trend of being single English words after 2014 apart from Drama, but she didn’t know how to break it to Sera. That trend seemed like such an integral part of the 2nd generation Nine Muses’s lineup that moving away from it felt like a separation between the old line-up and the current line-up. 

“No… I don’t think so,” Hyuna replied carefully. “But No Playboy isn’t one word either.”

“Yeah, and look at how that went.”

    Hyuna didn’t need to be there to know that Sera had just cringed, shuddering in embarrassment and horror, and she mentally congratulated herself for choosing to wait until the follow-up track to debut. All of the other girls tried to keep that era, the dark time of their careers, forgotten, and Sera was no exception.

“Hurt Locker could’ve been shortened to Hurt,” Hyuna stated, “but there was no way Sleepless Night would’ve fit. I saw translations like ‘Can’t Sleep, Am Hungry,’and ‘Can’t Sleep and My Stomach’s Hungry.’ Can you imagine us promoting with a title like that?” she complained.

“Sounds like the life story of Minha and Sungah,” Sera quipped.

    Hyuna chuckled, joined by the gentle giggles on the other end. “Can’t Sleep, Am Hungry” would describe all of the members’ life stories, especially the two most voracious eaters.

“Speaking of them, how are the girls?” 

    The conversation turned serious, the lighthearted laughter whisked away by Sera’s concern. She was always the leader, looking out after the younger members, even after that position was removed. Hyuna waited to answer; she wanted Sera to know that she was answering truthfully.

“They’re doing well. Matured a lot, and at the same time, they’re still dorks. Kyungri’s become popular and the company’s been pushing her a lot. She’s probably the busiest out of us all. Erin’s gotten good feedback for this comeback with her new hair, and she’s started to write her own raps. Sungah is a rapper in addition to vocals now, and I think she liked the bit of acting for her part in the music video. Hyemi and Minha aren’t the youngest anymore, but they still play like the maknaes,” Hyuna summarized.

“And you?”

“Just a couple features, nothing big,” commented Hyuna.

“What about the new members? Sojin and Keumjo?” Sera further questioned.

Hyuna blinked. It wasn’t that she had forgotten about the two additions. Rather, she didn’t expect Sera to be concerned about the newest members. But Sera had been the leader, and once a leader, always a leader. Hyuna mentally corrected herself; it wasn’t because Sera had been leader. It was Sera’s personality to worry about others.

“Sojin fits in well. She and Kyungri formed a subunit with Kevin before her official debut with us. Keumjo’s shy, more so than Minha, but that’s probably because she lacks experience. Her vocals are good; she’s like you 2.0”

    A pregnant pause followed the end of Hyuna’s words, and she panicked, wondering what she had said wrong.

“She’s not,” came the smooth retort.

    Hyuna winced, just then realizing her mistake in comparing Keumjo to Sera. True, many people labelled Keumjo as Sera 2.0 because of their delicate voices and similar tones, but she wasn’t Sera. Sera 2.0 made it sound like she was a replacement.

“She’s not,” agreed Hyuna softly. “You’ll never be replaceable in the group. No one’s had a bigger impact th-“

“No, not that,” Sera interrupted, a buzz of annoyance flashing through, “it’s not fair to Keumjo to be labelled as a version of anyone else. She has her own distinct personality and voice and she shouldn’t have to live up to standards set by someone else.”

“Oh….yeah,” said Hyuna, rather lamely.

“But thanks for saying that I’m irreplaceable,” Sera purred, humor and sincerity mixing together in her trademark way.

“Sera, I have a question?” Hyuna hadn’t meant for her statement to sound like a question. She played with her hair nervously, waiting for Sera’s response. 

“Mhmm..?”

    Hyuna took a deep breath, steadying her nerves. If there was even the slightest chance that Sera would agree, then it wouldn’t hurt to pose the question. But would it be overstepping her boundaries? The deafening silence in the room weighed down on Hyuna, tension palpable in the air. She gathered her quickly diminishing confidence and bit her lip. It was now or never.

“Would you join us again? As a member of Nine Muses?”