I wake up to Ayeon bouncing on my bed.

“Get up!” she squeals. “Hurry up!”

I open one eye. “What time is it?”

“It’s time to get up! Come on!”

I hear a shuffle of movement, and I suspect Ayeon is pulling out my overnight bag from under my bed. She drops it on top of my blanket with a flop, and then I hear the drawers slide open.

“I’m not beyond grabbing the first armful of clothes on top of your pile and dumping it all inside your bag. If you end up with mismatched clothes or missing, you know, important items of clothing for decency, that’s on you.”

I roll over and take the bag from her. “What is happening?”

Ayeon is absolutely beaming. “Are you serious? We’re going to the beach! For the music festival! Remember?”

Vaguely, the memory of a beach music festival being talked about worms into my consciousness. This is what I get for not paying attention when I should. “That’s today?”

“You’ve been working so hard on your music you don’t even know what day it is anymore, do you?”

I roll over and grab a bunch of clothes from my closet then toss a couple of beach appropriate attire together with the rest of my essentials into my bag. I have been busier than I’ve ever been in my life, but this time it’s the productive type. Sungjin was a terror. Is a terror when he wants to be. He made me write at least one song per day for the past ten days until we had enough for my project with room to reject a few more.

The good side was out of the fifteen or so songs I’ve written, there were six that stood out. One last round of mixing and mastering and my final project is good to go. I’ve never felt like this in a long while. A really long while.

“Is it Friday? Already?” I ask.

“You poor overworked thing,” Ayeon soothed. “You really are in need of a break.”

I check the time on my phone. It’s only been Friday for a couple of hours, and less than that since I went to bed. Outside, it’s still too dark to see anything, too dark to be doing anything but amble back home after classes or work or whatever. It is both too early and too late for anything. Yet here we are twenty minutes later, sitting out on the curb waiting for our ride to arrive. I try not to let my excitement show. Sungjin and the rest of DAY6 are coming; they managed to get a performance slot and it will their first festival as a band. The After School Sweg crew will be there too. Eric assigned us to cover the event, and Jae decided to make it his entry to the world of vlogging. It doesn’t escape me that Huiryong won’t be coming with us on the way there, that she’s made plans to meet us there instead. Ayeon tells me not to think about it, but I still do. It’s not as if it isn’t obvious why. It’s not as if this isn’t one of those thoughts forever lurking at the back of my mind.

Despite the odd sense of dread swirling in my gut, I’m just content to be feeling more like myself again.

DAY6 arrives in two vehicles: Sungjin driving the van with all their instruments and Jae in the car for the rest of them who won’t fit into the van. I flashback to the night of Ayeon’s party, at how awkward certain people were with each other, and internally shudder at the thought of having to spend six hours in an enclosed space in that same situation. I’m talking about Ayeon and Brian. I don’t know what happened between them, and I’m not the type to ask if I’m not entitled to that information. At least Huiryong isn’t here? At least we can make sure Ayeon and Brian won’t be in the same breathing space?

But just as I’m about to bring it up, Brian comes up to Ayeon with a big smile on his face and offers to carry her things for her. Ayeon responds with an even bigger smile and shyly tucks her hair behind her ear. Then they’re off to put Ayeon’s things away, talking to each other shoulder to shoulder and in low whispers.

That's good news, I guess?

Sungjin just shrugs when I turn to him, then smiles as if there’s a secret between us. The butterflies in my stomach agree, in a manner of speaking. I’m not sure what the specifics of this secret are as we haven’t had that conversation yet. Not that I’ve been avoiding it, though I am thankful for not having to stress over it at this time. I know Sungjin wants to talk about it. I know Jae wants to know all about it. I know I can’t keep putting it off either.

But at the moment, all I want is to fall face-first into his chest and bury my nose into his fluffy grey hoodie. I just want to breathe him in and feel him warm around me. I want to run my fingers through his hair and—

“Ready?” Sungjin asks.

For what? I want to ask. Instead, I nod and haul my bag over my shoulder.

Wonpil sticks his head out of the backseat window. “You can sit with me,” he beams.

I turn to Sungjin, looking for a cue for how to deal with this. He just looks annoyed, like he’s about to roll his eyes but is deciding against the effort it would take.

Dowoon rolls down the passenger side window. “I already called shotgun,” he says, grinning at us.

“No, you didn’t!” Wonpil counters, “I did first. You just got there before I did.”

Of course, that’s when Jae calls out to me. From the driver’s seat window. “Kitty Kat, my Kitty Kat. I have our script, or something like it.” He waves the sheathe of papers in the air. “We gotta work on our spiels if we’re gonna be winning awards for this episode of After School Sweg.”

We’re not entering any competition, neither am I under the illusion our show will ev