It wasn’t until she arrived at the flat on GreySky HQ that the Jet lag ridiculous ammounts of alcohol hit Byul. Which resulted in her drunken mind deciding that the still plastic covered sofa was a good enough place to sleep. The light entering the room from the poorly closed window woke her up easily. A sneaky insulting ray of light hit Byul square in the face waking her up. With a groan she tried lfighting off the introuder but when that turned out to be useless she resigned herself to getting up and starting the day. She patted around her body and sofa trying to find her phone to figure out the time. When the screen didn't light up inmediatly she started pressing any buttons her fingers could get to before she pulled on the cord groaning when she saw it was plugged to one of her discarded shoes instead of the current.

“Phoneless, hungover, jetlagged and now without any way to know the time unless I get up form here…I hate you too Korea.” she said closing her eyes and willing herself to fall asleep once again.

When that proved to be a usless feat and she heard noises coming from somewhere in the room she gathered all her strength to sit up. It was after a good 10 times that she gave up and decided to take the Hani route.

Rolling off the sofa she fell on the ground with a loud thud and a huff scaping her lips. There’s nothing better than cold hard tiles to wake you up.

Carpets. We need carpets. Super fluffy, thick and warm carpets.

“You look like . I leave you for one night and you come home drunk?” She didn’t even look up as she flipped off the owner of the voice.

“Shut up and make me coffee. Moonstar needs coffee. No coffee no Moonstar.”

“You are addicted to this thing seriously…I’m going to regret buying the coffee machine.”

Mmm coffee…WAIT coffee machine?!

 “You got me coffee machine?!?!” Byul on her feet faster than her brain was ready for her, resulting in her slipping once or twice as she rushed to where she bagely remembered the kitchen was.

Once she managed to stop she looked around with a frown. Bathroom. She was in the stupid bathroom. She turned around in a much slower pace, paddling her way to a very amused Eddy. Her best friend was sitting on their kitchen counter, right by a brand new, shinny, professional coffee maker.

 “Oppa…”

“It’s the latest model I could find. Works with ground so I got us a grinder for those beans we got from Colombia last month. Also comes with an option for capsules. In case someone makes awful coffee. Someone like you. Honest how can you love coffee so much but then be pretty much useless when it comes to making it.” He smirked as he sipped on his warm coffee pushing a warm cup closer to his friend.

“Shhh don’t you dare speak in front of it.” Byul said smashing a finger to his lips before falling to her knees infront of the machine. "Are you religious? Cause you are the answer to my prayers."

“Seriously. A machine. You are being greasy to a freaking coffee machine. I don’t know if you are really this weird or you do it on purpose to rile me up Moonie.” The older guy said shaking his head and walking to the centre of the room where a few of the boxes were already open. “I started unpacking when I got here this morning and couldn’t help but notice that the only thing you did was set up the studio in the flat. You know…instead of on one of the offices downstairs? You do know that you have a huuuuuuuge office now. Just for you. Your own the door name and everything.” Eddy rambled on as he tried to figure out where to put the mountain of books currently in his arms.

“It’s just an emergency office, in case I get inspiration at night and I’m too lazy to go downstairs.” She said walking up to him sipping on her black coffee and freeing him of some book to set them back on the box, earning her a glare from Eddy.

“Did you figure out what’s missing in the song during the plane?” He grunted as he tried to make the books fit in a shelf clearly too small.

Moonbyul sighed deeply shaking her head. Over the past 24 months she had written multiple songs, even composed a few, but there was one that she couldn't finish. Almost 6 months into their retirement Byul had gotten a text from Irene saying that she had just found out about her situation when she ran into Solar at a SM event.

The mention of the leader had taken her down on a spiral that ended with her drunk at their local pub writing nonsense on a napkin. When she woke up the next morning and looked at the napkin she saw what drunken Moonbyul had been trying to do. Admitting that you have a problem was the first step to recovery. For the next week she had worked on the lyrics. But the god damned melody kept avoiding her. No matter what she did, who helped her, they never found a good instrumental that was able to show the feeling behind the words.

“Nope. I think it would be easier for me to be turned into a vampire and start hunting nuns for fun. Or Wheein finally getting her Hogwarts letter. Heck I could get into the military and make a career out of it before I figure it out.”

“Trust me. When you least expect it you’ll find it.” Suddently he started pointin at her with a book, hitting her on the shoulder. “Oh! Right! Before I forget… I got a couple emails back from A-listers for the concert. We have a pretty big list thanks to everyone’s contacts and JYP called saying all his kids want to be there even if it’s just for J. But I wanna go over it with you, see who you think should or shouldn’t come.”

“Honestly? I wish it could be a tiny event. Like, like one of those MTv-like concerts with just a hundred fans or so. It’s our baby. I don’t want it to become just a celebrity get together…” she mumbled snatching the book from him.

‘How 2 cook the perfect dinner for 2’. The hell… She raised an eyebrow at him, smirking when he avoided her eyes and took the book back to hide it in a shelf.

“You know we need the press. Even with JYP’s help we don’t have enough pull publicity-wise yet. If we don’t have something big our chances of surviving are gonna be pretty slim. We need to fill a good venue and make sure everyone sees it. We can talk a bit more about other things we want to do for the fans but right now I need you to shower and put human clothes. We are meeting the venue owners to sign the contract. You have 30 minutes before the car leaves.”

Finishing up her coffee in one gulp Byul rushed to the bathroom attached to her bedroom. Making sure to wash away the tired off her face and applying enough make up to make it believebable she was half human she stepped out of the bathroom trying to figure out what she should wear. All of her doubts disappeared as she saw an outfit already spread on her bed. She jumped into her tight white jeans, tucking the front of the baby blue button up on the front and threw a light leather jacket over her shoulders to top the outfit off.

For the following hours both Eddy and Byul endure meetings with old business men, confident in their years of exploiding less experienced people, that try to confuse them with business bamboo jumbo and get them to pay exponentially more than they should for the venue. What they didn’t count on was on the face that Byul had spent the past 2 years studying business and was more than ready to fight for a fair price with data, facts and previous contracts of the place.

Looking down at her now charged phone, Thank god for car chargers, Byul checked her email, quickly deleting those artists that refused to work with them when GreySky was just a dream but now wanted to cash in on the popularity.

And that was the biggest surprise. As soon as they had driven off in the black SUV every single blog or news page had been quick to point out the new company. Tailing them to the building some paparazzi had managed to take a few pictures of them infront of the HQ. When Sam from marketing called that morning to lay the numbers on them she had been extatic that her job was going to be so incredibly easy.

She had released some teasers they had previously agreed on. They also decided to include a few selfies Hani and Amber had taken during their exploration of the building the previous morning. Wanting to make sure that everyone knew that the new label was a familiar brand, pictures of the friends during their time in London were released officially with the GreySky logo every 6 hours. They had agreed that continuous posting would help them stay on everyone’s minds insitead of just spaming with everything at the same time.

Byul’s chopsticks poked on a bit of sushi watching it wiggle form side to side. After a bad experience with sushi in London Byul had promised herself to never eat it again. But they had to take Mr Song out for lunch and Sam had insisted their chances of getting a better deal would increase if they took him to his favourite sushi restaurant in the city.

With shaky hands she lifted the food popping it into with a face. Hearing Eddy chuckle beside her she was quick to pinch his leg making the older guy jump on his seat and hit the table with his knee. While he continued to apologize and bow Byul tried not to choke on her laughter.

oOoOoOo

Once they were finally done with lunch and every document had been signed for the concert the two friends decided to walk around the city for a bit. In complete silence they just walked and walked, making detours every few streets to avoid all the main roads, getting familiar with Seoul once again.

While Amber and Jackson liked to be loud and ZICO and Hani were playful, the other two liked having their silent time time. Usually that meant they spent long hours alone but thankfully they now could just spend that time with someone that understood and shared the same sentiment.

When they finally reached a park near the river they sat down on a bench, close enough to where they had parked earlier that day. They both cuckled when both their mind drifted to the same thought. They had done it. It was happening. Everything they had worked for was going right and it was a scary thought. It woudn’t be the first time they thought of backing off, calling the hlding off and going back into hiding. But there was no turning around now. No matter how much they like or were good at running away they had to go through with it.

Byul’s trail of thought was cut short when she felt a hand grab hers. She didn’t even look down before squeexing her best friends hand. She felt the calloused skin, the small scars on his worn out fingers and the shaking that had taken over him. They stayed with their eyes focused on the other side of the river.

“I saw a picture of them on twitter.” He whispered after a while.

“I know.”

“I still love her.”

“I know.”

“It hurts.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“Do you think any of us will ever be able to get over them? Will the pain ever fade away?”

Moments like these were always brief; neither of them were particularly comfortable or good at talking about their feelings unless it was through music. And they knew it. So they silently came up with a deal that allowed them to say whatever they were feeling when they were alone. No matter how much it hurt or how hard it was to express. They became eachother’s safe place for venting and devils advocate when it came to rough decisions.

“I honestly hope so. ‘Cause if we don’t every single song in our label is going to be sad and depressing. And that’s good but I don’t really want to be known as the label responsible for making kids all around Korea depressed. Tho this weather might beat us to it, seriously what’s with the clouds…” She said looking up to the dark grey that covered the sky.

If you dare to rain even if it is one drop I will cut you. I didn't leave the land of the rain to go to more rain.

Her internal threats to the weather were cut short when Eddy pulled his hand back and stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“I need to go back to the company to finish moving us in. Do you want to stay here or come with me?” he nodded towards the car parked nearby.

“I promised the kids I’d go visit today. Part of me can’t believe they have businesses of their own. I wanna see how they handle themselves without me there to calm them down.”

They separated with a quick hug, a wave and a promise to be back for dinner so they could finish up paperwork over noodles and fried chicken.

The walk from the park to the studio took Byul way more than she expected. A storm broke out when she was half way there, drenching her to her bones. Her first reaction had been to run to try and to the studio as fast as possible, but after just 3 blocks she was so wet it didn't even matter anymore. So, she decided to do the only sane thing, walk as calmly as possible enjoying the feel of the cold drops on her face.  

When she noticed people kept staring at her admittedly weird behaviour she just shrughed them off. Two years ago she might’ve cared that people were giving her looks or how her clothes hugged her body tighter, but this time away had helped her create a strong confidence in her self.

Finally reaching the studio she grinned at Hwasa’s shocked expression. Laughing hard at her older friend and maing comparations between her and a wet cat, she directed Byul to the small change room they kept to themselves.

“Take a warm shower and get out of those clothes before you catch something. I’ll go try find you some spare sweats and a shirt.”

Oncec out of the shower in warm cotton she made up her mind to explore the studio, something she had failed to do the previous night. She couldn’t have stopped her self from laughing at her reflection now in the gym clothes when she caught her reflection in the mirror. The promotional t-shirt that Hwasa had left was obviously too big for her, reaching mid-thigh, something similar happening to the pants that hung precariously of her hipbones.

Without bothering to ask for permission she walked to the front desk grabbing a pair of scissors cutting the side of the shirt to make a tank top, reducing the length too. At least now she didn't look like a little kid that had stolen her big brothers clothes.

Walking past Wheein’s class Byul couldn’t help but smile as her friend tried to make one of the dancers repeat the moves. The pup was a natural when it came to dancing so explaining had never been her forte. Not even when she had to teach Solar the steps for their songs and the leaders threatened to hide her snacks if she didn’t calm down.

“Yeah you just do that!! No no, not THAT but this. Uugh why can’t you do it?” Wheein said almost pulling on her hair, much to the delight of the rest of the class.

Who would’ve thought she’d be a teacher now…

She kept walking until she found a small dance room in the back. A piano pushed to one of the corners and mirrors all around. She got in pushing the door close but not botherin to check if it was really closed or not. The only people that would go find her that far back were the maknaes and they had already seen her crazy dance moods enough times. She took out her phone plugging it on the audio station on back of the room, bopping her head to the beat as she stretched a bit. She hadn’t dance just for the sake of it in so long part of her was afraid she wouldn't know how to. She tied her hair in a messy ponytail before she let the music take over her body and everything else just faded away.

oOoOoOo

Almost an hour later Wheein had just given the dancers a new move they had to perfect for a bit going to the bar next door to get a couple water bottles from Hwasa.

“Oh hey Solar-unnie.” She said happily as she crossed her friend on the doorway.

Almost skipping the short hyper girl took two water bottles form the cooler behind the bar and inmediatly downing half of the first.

“Hey, what day is it today? I thought Solar-unnie only came to practice Mondays and Wednesdays.” Wheein said as she hopped on the counter stealing a crisp from the bowl Hwasa had been eating from.

“Todays is Monday Whee-wait did you say Solar?” Hwasa’s face seemed to go pale as if she had seen a ghost.

“Yeah. You know... About this tall. Very pretty. Your other best friend apart from me? Loves to wear those awful crock things? Seriously…and people say you are the more levelheaded one out of the two of us. HA! That's what I have to say. HA!”

“Wheein.”

“Yep?” Mumbled as she popped a handful of crisps on .

“Who else is in the studio right now?”

“Moonbyul-unnie” Wheein said with a tilt of her head.

Hwasa just took a deep breath and raised an eyebrow letting her best friend figure it out on her own, but already moving towards the door.

“Oh god. MOONBYUL UNNIE!!” Wheein screamed grabbing Hwasa’s hand and dragging her out of the bar and to the studio.

Kim Yongsun, or Solar as she know insited everyone call her, was humming happily as she walked to her room at the back of the studio. It wasn’t HER room per se but she had been using it since Wheein opened so she was entitiled to some possessive thoughts. It was the perfect spot. Secluded and private enough for her to focus on work, but her friends had no problem barging in if they were bored or felt like annoying their unnie. A frown appeared on her face as she heard music coming form the room.

Seriously these kids…How many times do I have to tell them to shut off the music if they are not going to be there to listen to it.

Her steps slowed down as she recognised the song playing.

Trust the warmth inside can you feel my love alive

Like yesterday...today will pass as if nothing is wrong

Please don`t tell me why

I turn around to you but I won't ask the reason you sent me away

But she didn’t stop completely until she opened the door.

It couldn't be. She had left. She was gone. But then who was dancing in front of her. Solar felt go dry, as her eyes traced every smooth movement that the ash blonde girl was making. How the muscles on her back and arms flexed and relaxed. The way she favoured her left side because of a childhood accident. It was all there.

Chocolate brown orbs traced every cm of Byul’s skin before resting on the younger girls face over the mirror. The concentration that tugged on her features disappeared when she managed to do a particularly complicated turn, and a smile formed on her lips. Completely oblivious to the other presence in the room Byul couldn't help but start singing softly to the tune.

“I wasn't good enough for you...”

A loud gasp made the dancer twist around, coming face to face with the last person she would’ve thought she’d see. Behind Solar the two maknaes stared at the exchange, too afraid to disturb the calm that clearly preceded the storm.

I was almost as if the noises around them had been turned off for her. Byul could only hear her heavy breathing and her heart pounding hard on her chest, as if it tried to leave it’s caging. Her eyes roamed over Solar’s features but avoided her eyes, too afraid to get lost in the brown gaze.

She didn’t know how long it took her but she finally gathered enough courage to look up. A shiver went down her spine as soon as their eyes met, ther back tensing up involuntarily. Her breath caught in when Solar opened to speak.

“You are an idiot.”