Battle Lines
Somi, Nayoung

The first text buzzes in.

Are you alright?

Somi frowns, she does not remember making that big a deal of the fact that she will not be home for Christmas this year, surely not enough to make Dani think that she would be this upset. Though she is, admittedly, a little upset because Evelyn was upset too because it is Christmas after all.

The van rocks gently, Doyeon’s head lolls onto her shoulder and Somi types a quick reply.

We’re on our way to the concert. What’s up?

A screencap of the video appears in her inbox.

Somi frowns.

Hey unnie, you’re with Somi, right?

Nayoung looks down at her phone while the rest get fitted for their microphones.

Make sure she’s fine? There’s been stuff flying around. She might need some support.

A GIF floats up on her screen from Siyeon. Then another. Nayoung frowns and looks over at Somi who is currently staring off into the space above Yoojung’s head.

“Somi,” she says, as their manager also calls for their youngest.

Somi turns to her first, which makes her inexplicably happy for a second, but Nayoung knows that whatever their manager wants takes precedence. She tilts her head towards their approaching manager, “I’ll catch up to you after he chats with you?”

Somi smiles, nods, then turns away and the two of them disappear into the back, away from the other girls.

Nayoung has the sinking feeling she knows what the manager wants from Somi.

“Hey,” Chungha says from her elbow, “Nayoung, have you seen this? Where’s Somi?”

“I wanted to chat with her,” Nayoung says, does not need to look down to the video to know what it is about, “but so did the manager. We can catch her after.”

Chungha frowns.

Somi returns a few minutes later while one of the concert staff is running the stage entrance procedure over with the rest of them.

“Sorry,” she says, “what did I miss?”

Chungha cuddles up to Somi and Nayoung shakes her head as the staff is about to repeat themselves from the beginning, “we’ll catch her up, it’s all good.”

Somi’s smile widens to her eyes as she leans into Chungha’s shoulder, “You two unnies are the best.”

Doyeon appears from behind Chungha, “Just those two unnies?”

Somi smirks, “Just those two unnies.”

Yoojung pouts and Somi laughs, “And Yoojung-unnie.”

Nayoung exchanges a glance with Chungha who squeezes Somi lightly. They have a few minutes before they have to get on stage to perform and while non-confrontational Nayoung really does not like to approach sensitive issues head on, that works well with certain kinds of people, of which Somi is one of.

Besides, Somi wears her heart on her sleeve and it does not take a genius to know that she is unhappy.

“Somi,” Nayoung says, “you have a minute for Chungha and I?”

Somi blinks, confusion clear on her face before a smile breaks out and she wiggles her eyebrows, “always, Unnie.”

Chungha snorts but Nayoung smiles.

“Are you alright?”

Nayoung turns to Somi when Chungha closes the door behind the three of them.

Somi shrugs though her eyes dart away to a corner, “yeah.”

Nayoung frowns, but Chungha sits down and pats the space next to her for Somi who joins.

“The video,” Chungha says.

Somi grimaces, then sighs, “I don’t-I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

“Were you uncomfortable,” Chungha says.

Somi shakes her head, pauses, “I don’t know. I didn’t really think about it, I just kinda took a step back, I guess? I mean… I don’t know.”

Chungha frowns, “If you weren’t comfortable, you weren’t comfortable. It doesn’t have to be anything big. You don’t have to think about it.”

Somi shrugs again, “I guess? I don’t want to cause trouble though. I wasn’t even that uncomfortable.”

Chungha sighs, “I read the statements we released.”

Nayoung has not.

Somi turns to Chungha, “Yeah, well...”

“We’re with you, Somi,” Chungha says, reaches out a hand to gently pat Somi’s shoulder.

Somi sighs, chews on her lower lip and wrings her hands, “I wish there wasn’t a side you needed to be with, unnie.”

Chungha rubs slow circles on her back and Somi opens to say something but the door opens to yield a member of the concert staff poking their head into the room.

“There you are. It’s time to move.”

Nayoung catches the slight downwards twitch of Somi’s mouth on her way out.

It does not get better after they get off the stage.

The stage, which of course, had nothing to do with this situation. In fact, being able to stand there at a Christmas concert with Ailee is amazing, something they had only talked about in the kitchen at their dorm on a night when the world seemed a lot bigger and more frightening.

Nayoung hopes that Somi is not getting the same updates that Siyeon is sending her with appalling frequency (and a ridiculous number of emojis), because it just seems as if the internet was not appeased by the company statements.

Nayoung does not see why they would be.

Nayoung also hates PR speak.

She does.

It takes so much effort to craft, means nothing, and no one likes it. As I.O.I’s leader and soon-to-be leader of the Pledis Girlz, however, Nayoung has gone through numerous classes in which well-meaning slimeballs peer down their noses at her and tell her that she needs to measure every word carefully for a single wrong syllable will one day come back to bite her in the . Which is also how she is incredibly good at teasing it apart to pick at the little turns of phrases, to identify the intentions, to be able to look at apology letters and see the insincerity.

She does not get how apologizing is something difficult to do.

Sure, being wrong is uncomfortable and annoying and frustrating. Having to apologize on top of that does not make one feel any better. But dodging the questions, skirting the issues, playing pretend and attempting to smooth the situation over by not talking about it is a sign of cowardice and while Nayoung is, as a rule, non-confrontational, not-apologizing is a sign of confrontation to her.

She can see how it can be perceived that they are making a mountain out of a molehill, can understand the statements about camera angles and not-actually-having-made-contact, but regardless, Somi looked uncomfortable, is currently unhappy, and goddamn would a proper apology kill anyone?

Perhaps, she thinks.

“Hey,” she says, hovers behind Somi who is reading something on her phone.

“Oh, hey unnie,” Somi looks up, “did you need something?”

Nayoung shakes her head, “Come with me?”

Somi puts her phone down.

“Texting?”

“Yeah, my dad called.”

“Ah,” says Nayoung.

“Mm,” Somi fiddles with a sticker that other fingers have fiddled with enough to be half peeling off the LAN Cable friends set.

“How are you feeling?”

Somi shrugs, Nayoung knows she wants to brush it off and not think about it but not thinking about it has been what Somi has been doing all day and it is clearly not working out for her.

“ty,” Somi laughs, “There's nothing about this situation that's at all good. I've tried thinking about it but it's all just terrible.”

Nayoung scoots a little closer.

“I mean, I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, because it’s not a big deal-”

“If something makes you uncomfortable, it makes you uncomfortable. It is not on you to minimize it or make that feeling go away.”

Somi shrugs, “People are being mean though.”

Nayoung nods.

“I feel bad because they're being mean in my name, for me. Then I feel bad that I feel bad because I should be allowed to feel bad about this in general but I feel guilty for feeling bad and that feels bad. Does that even make sense?”

Nayoung nods.

“I just want this to be over,” Somi sighs, fiddles with her fingers, “I don't want to care anymore.”

Nayoung frowns.

“Well,” Somi says, “fine. I do want to care. And I do care. I know that we always have to be careful around others. And I was never that close to him so he should have been more careful but ugh he probably didn't do it on purpose so I-I guess I just really want this to be over.”

Nayoung nods and they lapse into silence as Somi goes back to flicking the peeling sticker.

“We care,” Nayoung says, “and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to support you while you talked to our manager.”

Somi shakes her head, “it’s alright. I think he was sort of supportive?”

Nayoung frowns, “Sort of isn’t enough.”

Somi shrugs, “Well, it’s not like there really are any sides to this. It’s not a competition, it’s just a mistake. It’s not like we’re drawing battle lines in the sand or anything.”

Nayoung is not sure she likes brushing over this incident with ‘it’s a mistake’, but the world is unforgiving and she sees no way to demand a proper apology and not draw hateful attention. As it is there are whispers going around about meanness and going overboard and while she would personally never stoop so low as to curse him out on broadcast, Nayoung is sure she never wants to be, nor wants any of her girls to be on broadcast with him again ever. Or until he apologizes, so forever.

Somi stops fidgeting with the sticker, sighs.

“We’re not drawing battle lines,” Nayoung says, “but if we were to, we’d be here.”

She pokes Somi’s shoulder.

“With you. We’d always be here with you.”

Somi looks up, smiles, and this time it reaches her eyes.