Sojung is rather awkward around her after Sinbi says that she considers Sojung a 200/100 leader and the prettiest member in the group.

“I think unnie is shy,” Yerin says. “You never praise her.”

“She never praises anyone,” Eunha points out, “except Yewon.”

“That’s because Yewonnie is my favourite,” Sinbi says.

“Thank you,” Yewon says. “I think Sojung unnie was really touched though. You know how hard she is on herself.”

“And for some reason, she’s not confident about her looks,” Yuna adds.

That’s something Sinbi will never understand. Sojung looks like a model, with her statuesque height and endless legs and beautiful face. Source likes to put Sinbi and Yerin in the centre all the time, but Sinbi thinks that they should really give Sojung more middle time. It’s like they’ve never taken a proper look at her.

“We can’t all have Eunbi’s confidence,” Yerin says wryly.

“Not everyone can be me,” Eunha says, while Sinbi says at the same time, “I can’t help that I have no flaws.”

“I think everyone in this group could use more confidence,” Yuna says, eyes flickering from Yerin to Yewon. “Except the two Eunbis, they have more than enough. Especially Jung Eunbi.”

“Hey!” Eunha protests.

“Also,” Yerin interjects, hands on her hips. “I’m hurt that you don’t think I’m the prettiest member, Bi. What happened to our bond, huh?”

“What bond?” Sinbi asks. “You mean, your one-sided attachment to me?”

“What do you mean one-sided?” Yerin says indignantly.

“She means unreciprocated,” Eunha says helpfully. “Unrequited. As in it’s just you.”

Yerin pouts and then – oh no no no – turns it on Sinbi with tenfold the aegyo. “Biiiiiiiii,” she whines, stretching out the syllable so much that Sinbi wishes it weren’t part of her name. “Our love isn’t one-sided, right?”

“Right,” Sinbi agrees, and Yerin beams. “It has no sides, because it doesn’t exist.”

And then before Yerin can inflict some more aegyo on her, Sinbi flees.

As her luck has it, she – literally – runs into Sojung, who steadies her so she doesn’t end up toppling over.

“Who are you running from this time?” Sojung asks with a sigh, like Sinbi is a delinquent who picks fights with everyone.

“Yerin unnie.”

“Of course.” Sojung doesn’t sound surprised. “What did you do?”

Sinbi scowls. “Why do you assume it was me who did something?”

“Because it’s always you who does something,” Sojung says. “Did you deny her love for you again?”

“I don’t deny her love for me. I know that exists in abundance.” It’s her love for Yerin that doesn’t exist. “Don’t be jealous, unnie. I’m sure that Yerin unnie has some love to spare for you.”

Sojung rolls her eyes, reaching out to smooth down Sinbi’s hair. “Look at you,” she says critically. “You look like you’ve been running a marathon.”

Sinbi holds still as Sojung’s long, thin fingers carefully run over her hair. “I don’t like running enough for that. Maybe a dance marathon.”

“You’d love one of those, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah, but I would have to do it alone because I don’t think any of you can dance for that long.”

“We’d support you from the sidelines,” Sojung says, which Sinbi knows. When Yuna won the 60m in the Idol Olympics, they were so happy it’s like they were all victors. “Yerin and Yuna would probably try to join you at first though.”

Sinbi smiles at the memory of their ‘dance line’ trio at Weekly Idol, first the cover dance and then their rendition of Fantastic Baby.

“Thinking about your dancing exploits?” Sojung asks, like she’s reading Sinbi’s mind. She can be scarily psychic like that.

“You should join us next time,” Sinbi says brightly. Sojung is a lot better of a dancer than people give her credit for. She learns their choreography the fastest after Sinbi, and she remembers the other members’ moves as well as her own, always there to remind them if they forget. (This doesn’t apply to just dancing.)

“I don’t know if I can keep up with you kids,” Sojung says with a quirk of .

“That’s true,” Sinbi says. “Maybe you should just sit in a chair and start planning your retirement instead.”

“We haven’t even been out for two years yet and you already want me gone?” Sojung asks, her tone wry, although there’s something slightly—off about it for the last part.

Sinbi frowns. “I don’t want you gone. I would never want you gone.”

“You could have fooled me. On some days – basically every day – I feel like you can’t wait to be rid of me.”

“Well yeah, that’s when you’re nagging me.”

“I nag you because—”

“Yeah, yeah, for my own good, I get it,” Sinbi says, waving her hand. “On some days”—basically every day—“I want to suffocate Yerin unnie with a pillow, but that doesn’t mean I actually want her gone.”

“Your violent impulses concern me,” Sojung says, like she hadn’t threatened to choke Sinbi with her own hairband the other day. “Also, don’t let Yerin hear that, she’ll be hurt.”

“I’m sure she already knows,” Sinbi says dismissively. “Anyway, GFriend wouldn’t be…GFriend if it weren’t the six of us, right? They need all of us, and we need all of us.”

Sojung looks at her for a long moment. “Hwang Eunbi,” she says slowly. “I’ve never heard you say anything so sentimental.”

She doesn’t sound like she’s being mocking, but Sinbi flushes anyway. “And you’ll never hear it again, so take a picture because it’ll last longer. I mean, take a recording or—yeah. Whatever.”

“Hwang Eunbi,” Sojung says again, probably just to watch Sinbi squirm. “That was great. You should give our next motivation talk.”

“Yeah, if you can get the mike away from Eunha.” There’s no actual microphone during their talks, of course, but if there were one it would definitely be in Eunha’s hand.

“You can go after her,” Sojung says, because she thinks that every word that pours out of Eunha’s mouth is the scripture or something. “It can be an Eunbi mike night.”

Sinbi laughs at that. “Wow, is this what you do in your spare time? Plan ‘mike night’ events for us?”

“What do you expect me to do? Play bingo? Knit?”

“I don’t think you’re that much of a grandma,” Sinbi says. “Besides, my grandma doesn’t even do those things. Don’t shove old people into categories like that. When I’m a grandma I’m still going to have dance marathons.”

“I bet you would,” Sojung says, with that half-fond, half-amused voice she uses a lot around Sinbi (although the fondness is often replaced by annoyance).

“Would you still come watch me, unnie?”

“Even if I need a walker, I would,” Sojung says, and Sinbi knows that she means it. Sojung would drop everything and run to them if they needed her. If she couldn’t run, she would walk as fast as she could, and if she couldn’t walk, she would drag herself there. Sojung is the best leader they could ever ask for, but somehow she doesn’t believe that.

“Sojung unnie, you know I meant what I said, right?”

“About what?” Sojung blinks. “If you’re talking about the giraffe thing again—”

“No, I’m not”—although she meant that too—“I mean what I said on the show. About you as our leader.”

“Oh.” She can’t read Sojung’s expression, not that she was ever good at reading them. She doesn’t even know what to do with her own face; she certainly has no idea what to do to interpret other people’s.

“I meant it,” Sinbi says firmly. “You’re a great leader.”

“Thank you,” Sojung – no, Sowon says.

“Sojung un—”

“What’s with all this sentimentality all of a sudden?” Sojung asks. “Did they replace you with a pod person?”

“What the—”

“Yah, give Hwang Eunbi back.”

“Give Kim Sojung back,” Sinbi says, not joking.

“That’s unnie to you.”

“Sowon unnie,” Sinbi says, and watches Sojung falter. “I meant it,” she repeats, because she does and she doesn’t know what else to say to make Sojung believe her.

“I know you did,” Sojung says quietly.

“I still mean it now.”

Sojung touches her hand. “I know,” she says, eyes soft. “Thank you.”

“And I’m not going to say it again anytime soon, so keep your recorder on.”

“I recorded it and I’m going to keep it in here,” Sojung says, tapping her temple.

“Good,” Sinbi says. “Your head is pretty small, so – you’re not going to forget, are you?”

Sojung smiles. “How could I, with all of you to remind me?”

“We’ll always be here to remind you,” Sinbi says, and Sojung’s smile widens until that dimple-like line pops out at the corner of .

They’ll always be here for each other. And ugh, Sinbi needs to take a shower to wash all this maudlin mush off her. It’s a good thing Sojung hadn’t actually recorded her, because she would never live it down.

Judging from the glint in Sojung’s eyes, she has a feeling that she isn’t going to live it down anyway. Is it too late to take back everything she said?

A/N: I can't believe how good Tom and Jerry have been to us lately. At this rate we can't even call them that anymore.