Meet Me in the Sky
Yoojung

Sure she had not been on the other side of the unassailable wall of votes that was Sejeong-unnie and Somi but Yoojung knows that she will make it in.

It's pretty far to fall out of the top eleven from third place, Mnet doesn't hate her and she's been feeling fairly confident with this new song

It's Doyeon she's worried about.

Doyeon only just made it into the top eleven in the last ranking, and the fact that people like Kang Mina, Jung Chaeyeon and Joo Kyulkyung were not in that list only makes her even more nervous.

Not being able to talk about it makes it worse but it's hard to talk about because she's safe but Doyeon isn't.

So Yoojung bites her tongue, frowns at the board where they are choosing positions then exacts revenge on Han Hyeri. Well, she had also sort of been interested in that position so if Doyeon couldn't have it then at least one of them could.

Then the PDs who have always been extraordinarily kind to her ask about it and she feels a little brave that day after practicing so she doesn't deny it.

Why would she, anyway?

Doyeon avoids her glance a little over dinner. Yoojung pretends she doesn’t care.

Even though Sejeong-unnie was totally her girl crush for the first week or so of Produce 101 - both Yoojung and Doyeon voted for her - by the end of the program Yoojung has found other friends, other unnies to fill her need for people.

But then the program ends and it's just the eleven of them and Yoojung needs to figure out who she can snuggle up to because she is a Yoojung and Yoojungs need their snuggles.

In the beginning it is easiest for Yoojung to fling herself at Sejeong-unnie. Sejeong-unnie pats people on the head readily, gives out hugs whenever, grins at them and calls them kids. She also does not turn down snuggles. Ever. Even in her sleep as Yoojung finds out once.

But Sejeong-unnie is often busy, running around filming that home shopping show, being invited to things and having to prep with Gugudan.

So Yoojung’s quest continues.

Yoojung is nervous.

Ever since they started promoting as IOI she has been able to get over her nerves by snuggling up to one of the other members, sometimes Sejeong-unnie, sometimes Chungha-unnie and she is still trying to break Nayoung-unnie down to accept her hugs but she can see that happening on the horizon.

Today though, for some reason, she is the only one still awake in the car.

They spend so long in the car everyday, going from place to place, recording studio to outdoor venue, brand fansigns to university events - Yoojung finds universities entirely foreign since she’s just started high school and already that is strange with the tall older kids, not to mention universities full of adults. The girls are so very used to sleeping in cars by now. Yoojung has her favorite Brown neck pillow, Doyeon has the blanket her mother knitted for her, etc.

Maybe it was a pothole, maybe it was a bump that was higher than the rest, maybe it was a sharper turn but whatever it was, Yoojung is now wide awake.

They are heading to a recording of some sort, she’s forgotten exactly what it is but somehow for some reason she can’t remember the lyrics to the new song even if they had just recorded the song yesterday. She's tried thinking about it but the chorus is stuck in her head and nothing sounds right and a single wrong syllable is enough to throw the rap off.

She knows it's not a big deal. She could just ask them when they wake up. But what if she doesn't have them in time and can't remember on stage? What if she remembers the words wrong and then says them wrong on stage?

The car goes over a hump and Doyeon’s head lolls over onto Yeonjung’s shoulder.

She knows she's worrying too much about this, she knows, but that doesn't stop the fear, doesn't stop the anxiety. What if she screws up and then they decide they don't want to debut her after all?

She squeezes her neck pillow in her hands, squishes Brown's ears, wrings her blanket, wishes she were sitting next to Doyeon.

It still doesn't feel real. This doesn't feel real. This dream could all be over in a second if she screws it up.

Even performances on music shows just kind of feel like the taping for Produce 101 and even though she knows that this is the real world, even though she knows, it just doesn't feel right.

Yoojung thinks she is about to burst into tears which she really doesn't want to do in front of these girls. That thought only makes her want to cry even more.

She sees a familiar building in the distance, feels her heart begin to pound in her ears.

They’re here. They’re here. It’s starting. It’s too late. She’s going to screw it all up and then it’s going to be over.

The first tear leaks out and she hastily dabs it away, hands shaking.

Then Chungha-unnie sleepily puts an arm around her shoulders and Yoojung can temporarily breathe again.

Chaeyeon-unnie took no time whatsoever.

Yoojung trips once while they were practicing for Yum Yum and immediately Chaeyeon-unnie has the most concerned look on her face and even though Somi and Soyeon-unnie are next to her instantly, it is Chaeyeon who stays back a little to ask if Yoojung’s ankle is alright.

Yoojung nods.

Chaeyeon says, “Ah,” then pats her on the head before they both realize what just happened.

Yoojung grins, Chaeyeon ducks her head but smiles.

Doyeon grumbles a little about how long Yoojung made her wait. Yoojung sticks her tongue out but latches on anyway because it is cold.

Yoojung loves snuggles and makes this abundantly clear with anyone who does not hate snuggles, which happens to be the entirety of IOI.

And Somi.

Especially Somi.

It helps that Somi has very little concept of unnies. Yoojung knows that Somi understands what having an unnie means, knows how to be respectful and distant if needed, but if an unnie is to let Somi in it means to basically surrender almost all unnie-privileges.

Oh who is she kidding.

She does not even remember when it first happened, probably at some point when a bunch of them were just hanging out in the cafeteria or something but Somi joins in on a joke and within minutes they are squishing up against each other.

It is easy to look at Somi from afar and be awed.

She is the crazy confident younger sister, loud and straightforward and unafraid in public and everything Yoojung is not.

But Somi loves cuddles even if she is strong and independent and Yoojung also loves cuddles and they understand each other in a way they have never talked about because they, like most of IOI, are hard workers for whom nothing drops from the sky.

They get along fabulously because Yoojung is straightforward with friends and self-deprecating and Somi understands and laughs and gets it and still calls her Yoojung-unnie.

“Yoojung-unnie! Get out here!”

Yoojung sighs and stops organizing her things.

Then she puts on a pair of sunglasses and dashes out the room to headbang to Dawin’s Dessert because that is her jam.

Somi pushes her and Jieqiong-unnie and Doyeon die of laughter.

Yeonjung is easy.

She whoops loudly and rushes over to congratulate Yoojung on an amazing performance for Bang Bang, grabs hold of Yoojung’s hands and only lets go when both of them realize what is happening.

Yeonjung likes people.

Yoojung is people.

Easy.

But really, Yeonjung even manages to warm up to Nayoung-unnie during Produce 101, which is a feat that not many outside of Nayoung’s evaluation groups manage. For her to smile and wave and even come over to hug Yoojung from time to time is not surprising.

Also, for as much as Doyeon says she does not get along with Yeonjung, they seem enjoy annoying the bejeezus out of each other and being right there next to Doyeon, Yoojung gets a first row seat into the amazing, wonderful, absolutely insane experience that it is to be around Yeonjung.

Besides, it is hilarious to see someone get the better of Doyeon.

Sohye is a closet-lover of cuddles but has no shame with butts.

Yoojung knows this because she is a source of cuddles and sometimes finds it hard to dish them out to Sohye who blushes too easily and is way too happy at any form of this sort of attention.

They get to stand next to each other often though, more often than her and Doyeon, at least, since they are of somewhat not too disparate heights.

Sohye smacks Yoojung’s .

Yoojung grins, grabs the hand and smacks herself, which then buys her enough invisible Sohye-points to cuddle, which really does make everyone happy.

Mina she gets by being herself and watching the Jellyfish girl a little too closely one day during rehearsal and coming to the realization that damn, Mina can dance.

“Yoojung-ah,” Mina waves a hand in front of her face.

“O-Oh,” Yoojung snaps out of it for a moment. Gotta stop looking at butts for a moment, girl, even if that can dance.

“We’re leaving,” Sejeong grins, “Shouldn’t you at least say bye to your favorite unnie?”

“You mean me?” Chaeyeon smiles.

“Nuh-uh,” Mina says, “Chungha-unnie is Yoojung’s favorite unnie.”

“I thought you were on my side, Mina-yah!”

“Never was,” Mina says, “I’m on Yoojung’s side.”

“It’s either Chungha-unnie or Nayoung-unnie,” Doyeon says, “Mina’s right.”

Mina beams.

It is mostly with snuggles that Yoojung wins Nayoung-unnie over.

Well, that and copious amount of pouting and aegyo. Not that she needed to do anything deliberately, really, just be around people who are her unnies and all of a sudden Yoojung is the cutie-pie that she swears is really just the result of Mnet’s editing. (Though, realistically, while it is possible to splice things together to project a certain image, it is impossible for them to create facial expressions that she did not show so…)

In this age of fierce independent women, of whom Yoojung is also undoubtedly one, just not all the time, it probably is refreshing to have someone who wants to be taken care of.

Or something.

To be honest, Yoojung has never thought about what it is that makes people love her because thinking about it only makes her want to doubt herself and crawl into a hole and hide her face for all eternity.

But whatever it is, she is eternally grateful to the nation’s producers who have pulled her out of trainee-anonymity and into IOI and who have allowed her to meet Nayoung-unnie.

Before IOI, Yoojung had never really properly interacted with Nayoung-unnie. Sure she made lots of friends towards the last few months of the program but Nayoung-unnie was always the quieter one, mostly hanging out with the other Pledis Girlz, from time to time with the other members of her various evaluation teams, and since Yoojung never was in the same team, they had barely spoken. All she knew was what she heard other people say, which was a combination of various conflicting information - adorable, funny, scary, cold, bored.

Nayoung-unnie is the leader of IOI and Yoojung takes very well to authority figures. She does not know why, tried being a rebel at some point early on but really does not have the heart to make anyone’s work any harder than it already is so she listens well.

Part of listening well means that it is harder to horse around because horsing around takes time.

So Yoojung horses around with the kids her age, Sohye, Mina, Yeonjung (who is most eminently horse-around-able if only because she laughs so easily and says what she thinks). Somi too, who is really age-less in terms of this whole age-order that they may or may not have in IOI. Well, and Doyeon, but Doyeon is Doyeon so that is hardly interesting.

Yoojung also picks up the courage to follow in Somi’s footsteps and tries to joke with Nayoung-unnie but Nayoung-unnie reacts funnily to jokes in the sense that sometimes she thinks they are the best thing in the world and sometimes does not seem to hear them at all. Yoojung likes the moments when Nayoung-unnie smiles so she tries her very best to make more and more of those moments.

She notices that Nayoung-unnie likes imitations and does not know how to hide reactions to aegyo and really, really likes adorable things and soon enough she is clinging to Nayoung-unnie like a koala to a eucalyptus tree, snuggling up to her whenever they are close to each other, which is not often because that really accentuates Yoojung’s uh, lack of height. There are real reasons why she does not get to stand next to Doyeon at most of their events. That is one of them. There are also others but that is the main one.

Her crowning achievement is when Nayoung-unnie comes to her.

Jieqiong-unnie, Yoojung feels, has been way nicer to her than she really deserves.

She is not sure how she was chosen as center, certainly there were fewer Fantagio girls than Pledis and even then there was no colluding that she knew of, at least she had never mentioned it - she doesn't even remember if she voted for herself. (She probably did.)

But somehow Yoojung is the center and she will not complain because it would be ungrateful to do so and besides it is a blessing and why would she do anything in this competition that would make her chances to get into the last eleven any harder?

She knows of Joo Kyulkyung though.

Well, to be fair, everyone knows of all of the girls in the A group since this is a competition, but they have all also seen the Pledis girls. Doyeon definitely did when they walked in. Also, it takes balls to perform an After School song in front of Kahi-ssaem so of course Yoojung remembers them.

They mostly inhabit different circles during Produce 101 and it really does not help that Haerim is made center for the Apink song. While Yoojung and Siyeon become fast friends quickly, she never really manages to get too much time with many of the other Pledis girls who mostly have each other.

Then one day she is dragged over by Siyeon to sit with the other girls.

“Pick me Center Choi Yoojung,” Eunwoo beams, “hey~”

“H-Hi,” Yoojung says, and even though she is now comfortable at filming for Produce 101 this is still slightly somewhat intimidating because she knows they were close and she had pipped one of their own to the spot.

Yoojung really wishes she brought Doyeon along with her. Or maybe Park Soyeon-unnie who is friends with everyone. Heck, even Somi would be nice too. Maybe she will not die.

At least Kyulkyung-unnie is not here.

“She’s so cute,” Eunwoo gushes, “Look at her!”

“I want dibs,” Siyeon says.

“That’s not fair,” Yebin says, “you don’t get to bring her over and call dibs at the same time.”

“I did and I can.”

“What are we calling dibs on, I- Oh hey Yoojung!”

Yoojung turns, “H-hi Kyulkyung-unnie.”

Jieqiong’s eyes light up, “Siyeon finally stole you away!”

Yoojung blinks, “H-Huh?”

“Ugh,” Yebin says, “Well I guess that’s settled then.”

Yoojung does not know what that means but Jieqiong beams and sits down next to her.

“Dibs.”

Yoojung has never had sisters.

She's had friends, sure, but she's never had sisters. Even at Fantagio she's always been one of the older trainees amongst the girls, been the unnie to the others.

Which is why, after she gets over the shock of being a D - and being away from Doyeon and the other Fantagio girls - and again being a D because that was honestly incredibly shocking, Produce 101 turns out to be the best thing that has happened to her in forever. Being around this crop of crazy people who all share this same dream, living with them and eating with them and training with them, Yoojung sometimes wonders if she is going to wake up and have it all be a dream.

When she feels down, which is getting less and less often nowadays, she reminds herself that she is fortunate, that she has ten sisters now and even if they will one day no longer be able to see each other nearly quite so often, they will still be her sisters.

And Doyeon, well, Doyeon will always be there.

“Yah!”

She hears Doyeon from her sleepy haze.

“Choi Yoojung!”

She ignores Doyeon, turns a little to the side, feels something cold and hard beneath her.

“Yah! Choi Yoojung, wash up before you sleep!”

Oh right. That.

She moves her hands, feels the coldness of the floor beneath her fingertips this time, not those bear paws from a million years ago, and decides that maybe her skin will not peel off her face if she just does not wash up this once.

She is not growing vertically anymore anyway, so she probably does not even have to move off the floor. She has slept in front of the fridge, she can sleep anywhere.

It's fine.

“Open your eyes!”

Yoojung bats her hands feebly at Doyeon who proceeds to stick the q-tip up her nostril.

She giggles.

A/N: Feedback is much appreciated.