Wendy POV

“Joy! When are you going to finish straightening you hair? We need to get going!”

“Ne Irene unnie, just give me five more minutes!”

“Seulgi unnie, have you seen my blue take top?”

“No Yeri, last time I saw it, it was on your bed. Didn’t I let you borrow mine? Where’s mine?”

“Unniee, it’s in your drawer!”

“Ya Joy, hurry up, I also need the straightener!”

“But Seulgi unnie, you just used it!”

“Irene unnie, can you help me iron out my blouse?”

I leaned against the door to my bedroom, shared with Seulgi, and looked on at the chaos in front of me.

Noisy? Annoying? Loud? Well, that’s our everyday lives. No matter how hard I try to put everything back into place, things always go missing during rush hours. By rush hours, I mean getting ready twenty minutes before going downstairs to meet our manager. It happens every single time, Irene unnie and I finish dolling ourselves half an hour before meeting our manager. We always think, going down ten minutes earlier would be nice for a change. The thing is, we always arrive ten minutes late. It doesn’t really make us late to any shows, performances or whatnot. Cause our manager is smart and always calls us our thirty minutes earlier, just for this.

“Wendy! Can you help me curl my hair?”

“Ne, Seulgi! Coming.”

I strolled over to her and plugged in the curling iron. “What happened to you wanting to straighten your hair?”

“Joy wouldn’t let that thing go! I pray for a long life for that straightener. It, in her hands…we can only hope it’ll survive.”

“Unnie! I heard that!” Joy shouted from across the room. We stifled a laugh at her annoyance.

“Hahaha Seulgi, you know things only have a span of six months maximum. Before they break in her hands and she goes crazy.”

“Ya, Wendy unnie!”

“Ya? Joy did you just—”

“Mianhae unnie, got too caught up.”

“Wouldn’t think otherwise.” Seulgi bent over and clenched her stomach as she broke into fits of laughter. I looked down at her and smiled. “Ya, Seulgi, if you keep moving, I’ll burn your hair.”

“Huh, ya, ok, ok, I’ll stop. But seriously, when I saw Joy’s scrunched up face from the mirror it was so cute. She knows we’re teasing her but still takes it so seriously.”

“Yea, the kid’s really easy to tease.”

“I know right,” she looked up at me from the mirror, face masked with curiosity and excitement, “Wan-ah, what happened yesterday afternoon?”

“Huh, what do you mean what happened?”

“Oh, come on, don’t play dumb with me, Mark sunbae and you. What happened?”

“You saw what happened right? He protected me from Choi Seonsaeng-nim’s slap.”

“No, not that. The lovesick aura that Mark sunbae and you had going on when he touched you.”

“You…saw that?”

“Well yea we did, It wa—”

“Wait, ‘we’?” Seulgi scowled at me as I air quoted. She didn’t like being interrupted, but I couldn’t help it. What happened yesterday was embarrassing and the lesser the amount of people who saw, the better.

“Yes, we. JB sunbae and I.”

“You and JB sunbae? You guys are together?”

“Wendyyy!!” She hissed through her teeth, I watched as she slowly turned pink and looked down at her lap. Well, I guess we won’t be needing to apply blush onto her.

“We’re not together silly. We were just talking and then JB sunbae point you guys out. That’s when I saw what he did to you.”

“Oh, so how was it? The conversation between you guys?”

“It was nice. He was nice. The conversation went smoothly, although he occasionally did slip into his own little world and just started talking nice things about his group members.”

“He sounds like a real catch. Doesn’t he?”

“Of cou—“

She paused and turned her head to glare at me. My hands fumbled with the curling iron, trying to comprehend her sudden turn, not wanting to burn her scalp or myself.

“—how did this conversation go from you and Mark sunbae to JB sunbae and I?”

I let out a small sigh and her eyes danced with amusement.

Here I thought I could distract her with her beloved JB.

“YA, Wendy, Seulgi hurry up, I’ve called you guys twice already and none of you answered me!!” Irene stormed into the living room with both of her hands plants on either side of her hips and a very pouty face.

“Ne, mianhae unnie!”

Seulgi got up from her chair and ran her hand through her hair as she nudged me with her other. “Ya, we’re not finished, Wan. I’ll be chasing you down once we get back to the dorm after today’s performance.”

I let out a small groan, knowing Seulgi would do just that once we get back home later.

The performance and time at MBC Live went as fast as I would like it to have. It went by too fast for my liking. We performed One of these Nights live on stage. It’s of my favourite songs so far. But the time we spent at MBC lasted as long as it could. Before my mind could even register the door in building in front me, Seulgi linked her arm through mine. “Irene unniee, Wendy and I will be in the park for a while. We’ll be back before dinner. I promise”

Irene looked confused, before she could even reply, my feet were stumbling over themselves trying to keep up with Seulgi.  “Ya, Seul slow down, you know I don’t have any energy…after a …performance.”

She skidded to a stop and my chest was heaving rapidly with heavy panting. I looked up to her and saw that she, too, was tired as dark eye bags encircled her eyes and her beautiful chocolate brown hair fell limply around her shoulders. Yet her posture and eyes said otherwise.

She leaned and applied all her weight down her left leg. She isn’t going to take no for an answer. Her eyes gleamed with amusement and curiosity.

I let out a sigh and sat down underneath the oak tree. Let the interrogations begin.

“So?”

“So?”

“So, are you going to tell me everything that happened yesterday afternoon…or am I going to have to ask you questions?” She strides to my side and sat down next to me. I leaned and placed my head on her shoulder and groaned.

“Yesterday, Mark sunbae, he wiped my tears away, that formed when I was laughing too hard.”

“Smooth guy he is.”

“urrgh. Seulgiii”

“Ok ok, continue.”

“He was gentle, he touched me gently, as if I’m fragile and will break easily if he handled me too roughly.” I sat back up and leaned against the tree and looked up to the little amount of sunlight streaming through its thick leaves.

“Mark sunbae, I feel as though he reminds me of him. His eyes and his gestures are too similar Seulgi. Too, too similar. Whenever I look at sunbae in the eye, I’m reminded of him. It’s painful. I mean, I don’t know Mark sunbae that well, we’ve seen each other on music programs, once at his house and yesterday.” I paused and started playing with the grass beneath me. Sadness, pain and anger all came rushing in at once, I bit my lip to hold back the tears forming in my eyes.

Seulgi, noticing this, placed her hand on my back and pulled me closer to her. “But?”

“But, you know how I’ve been avoiding Mark Sunbae because of this right?”

“Mmm”

“It seems like I can’t. I don’t want to feel all those emotions again. I want to start anew and push away my past. But with Mark sunbae, he seems to be drawing me in and bringing back all my past memories.”

“Does he seem like he will hurt you though?”

“No…yes, no, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like he will. But I’m afraid Seulgi. I’m afraid of myself and what will happen to me once the past comes back to haunt me.”

“Wan-ah, you know, I think Mark Sunbae is good for you. Don’t ask me why. I feel as though he will be able to support you if you ever fall. Whenever I see sneaking glances at you I feel like he’s someone who will be able to embrace your past and accept you.”

“Seul…”

“Wan, why won’t you give it a try? Get to know him, grow closer to him and whenever you feel secure, you and try and tell him.” My tears ran down uncontrollably and I started to hiccup as I looked up at Seulgi’s eyes and found confidence and reassurance within them.

“Seul ah…”

“Unniee, you know Seulgi isn’t the only one there for you, right?” I flinched and turned my head around, only to come face to face with Yeri, kneeling beside me as she bought her arms around my neck and pulled me in for an embrace.

“We’re also here for you, we’re your family. Lean on us for support Wan’ah.” Irene said

“Yea Unniee, we’ve caught you falling once, we’ll always be able to catch you again. So why not give Mark sunbae a try and if he doesn’t catch you, we will.” Joy recites as she and Irene unniee knelt in front me and joined in on the embrace.

“You guys. Thank you so much.”

“Mmm” They replied in unison as we all stayed underneath the oak tree and enjoyed each other’s embrace.

Until someone had to ruin in.

“Well at least my GOTVelvet ship can now start recruiting people on board.” Joy chimed as she sat up straight with a smirk planted on her lips

“Huh, what are you talking about?” Yeri asked as she turned to her with confusion on her face.

“Well we all know Wendy unniee here likes Mark sunbae, but is afraid of him. Whilst Mark sunbae is clearly infatuated with unniee.”

“Huh, I’m do-don’t li-like Mark sunbae”

“Oh unniee, you’ve got to be joking. It’s not like we all don’t know you guys stealing love glances at each other all the time.”

“HUH? Om my gosh, you knew? No, you, you guys knew?”

“Ne unniee, you sooo weren’t being obvious.” Yeri replied as a matter of fact, her voice laced with sarcasm.

I looked towards Seulgi and Irene unniee, only to receive nods and smirks. I buried my head in my hands out of embarrassment as the rest of the members laughed at me.

I thought they wouldn’t know.