(Nayeon's powers has brought us back to the past.)

Three Years Ago

Mina sighs as she looks at herself in the mirror. There’s thick make-up covering her face, and she’s wearing a tight body hugging dress that barely covers anything. This should be usual for her, but she can barely recognize her reflection in the mirror now. It’s disgusting, she thinks, how low she can stoop for money. She has always been doing this, but why does she feel even more disgusted at herself today? Maybe it’s because of how disappointed Chaeyoung looked when she burst out through the doors then.

The thought of Chaeyoung brings tears to her eyes and she immediately huffs as she squeezes her eyes tightly together. She can’t ruin her make-up when she’s about to head out to meet him. She drapes Chaeyoung’s jacket on herself, more for covering herself up than for warmth. She stole it from Chaeyoung a few weeks ago, the girl complaining that she doesn’t have any jackets left because it’s all stolen by her. Mina just pulls the jacket closer around the body, picking up her handbag. This can’t do. She needs to leave now before she broods even more and end up crying (not like she hasn’t cried enough ever since Chaeyoung left).

The one hour bus ride passed way too quickly, she thinks as she stands outside the lobby of the hotel. This is it, if she takes this lift up to the room, she won't have to worry about the debts her family owed. But is it worth it? She’s in front of the lift now, and presses the button for the lift with shaking fingers. There are many people around her waiting for the lift with her, but she is so lonely.

The lift door opens, and she gives way to the people inside the lift. She hears a gasp, and someone holds onto her wrist, Mina immediately flinching in response. She looks at her assailant, meeting with familiar round eyes.

“Mi-Mina-chan!” Her assistant calls out, surprised by the violent reaction to her touch. “Don't you remember me?”

There's no way in hell she can even forget someone as unforgettable as Sana. Sana is a family friend, although Mina considers her to be more than that, having grown up together as their fathers met to talk about business and their moms about their naughty daughters. She lost contact with Sana after moving to Korea, having to pawn her then phone to get enough money for the rent for the house she’s living in now.

“Sana-chan…” Mina whispers, not sure when her tears had started streaming. “I’m so tired, I don't want to do this anymore.”

-

Mina stuffs the last of her (Chaeyoung’s) jackets into her duffel bag, taking one last look at her apartment. It still looks the same, only the wardrobe being emptied out. Sana steps into the room, bringing Mina out from her reverie. “Ready?”

After crying for a few hours in Sana’s embrace that day, Mina had told her about everything and although she had received a scolding from the former, she had promptly bought return tickets for the both of them back to Japan. The way she tugs the jacket around her closer doesn't escape Sana. When she said everything, it includes her... relationship with Chaeyoung.

“Do you want to leave a note or something?” Sana asks, and Mina shakes her head. After all, what can she say? Sorry for breaking your heart? Please wait for me until I pay off my family’s debts? There's nothing more she can say without sounding like a bigger jerk than she already is. Since things have already come to this stage, she should just leave quietly.

--

“Guys, maybe this is not a good idea.” Chaeyoung says as she wipes the cold sweat on her forehead, the guitar strapped to her shoulders feeling extremely heavy today. She doesn’t know how their jamming videos online got them an audition with JYP; their playing is only mediocre at best. Jeongyeon is just gripping onto her drum sticks, knuckles turning white from the tight grip, while Dahyun is manically practicing her piano chords on her lap. Nayeon isn’t doing any better, downing gulps after gulps of water to keep hydrated. Jihyo, the only sane looking one shifts her bass guitar away from her front, calling out to her other friends.

“Guys, it’s okay. I trust you guys. We will do just fine, okay?” Jihyo assures them, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect.

“TM! You guys can enter for your audition!” A staff calls out as he holds the studio door open for them.

"Okay, coming!" Jihyo replies for the team and gathers them in a circle. “Hey guys, it’s okay. Just think of it as a normal jamming session, okay? Don’t worry too much. Come on now,” she encourages and holds out her hand in the middle, the others piling their hands on top of hers.

“Let’s do well, TM!” They do their group cheer and head into the studio.

Park Jinyoung himself is sitting in the middle of two people, the three making up the judges’ panel for their audition today. They immediately bow, scampering to their positions. Jihyo and Chaeyoung hook their guitars to the sound system, Jeongyeon gets behind the drum set, Dahyun starts tuning the settings to the keyboard while Nayeon grips onto the mic, introducing them as her members busy themselves with their instruments. “Hello, we are TM and we will be playing a self-produced song, “Time Walking on Memories” for you today.”

The judges nod encouragingly. “You can start whenever you are ready.”

Nayeon turns to look at her members, and they all nod at her. She begins singing, and the band chimes in on her first note.

I still hear your voice

I still feel your touch

Now I live in your path again

I still see your image

I still feel your warmness

Now I live in your time again

From the vision of a stranger passing by

From the leaf that rides the wind and sorrowfully sways

From the air in the night that brush against my face

All I see, I hear, I feel

You are there

How about you?

Are you feeling the same as me?

How about you?

The song fades to an end with Dahyun’s piano and they just grip onto their instruments and mic tightly, waiting with abated breaths for the verdict. JYP breaks out into a smile, clapping his hands. “Who wrote the song?”

The other members point to Chaeyoung, while the girl mentioned raises her hand timidly. He nods at her. “Even as a producer, I must give credit to your producing talent.”

He scans the room, taking a good look at all five of them. “So TM, would you like to produce music with JYP Entertainment from now on?”

--

Mina had gone back home, crying in her parents’ arms. They don't know what she had done back in Korea, and Mina intends to keep it a secret until her grave. The only person who knows of her secret is Sana, and she intends to keep it that way (and also, Chaeyoung, but she would rather not go there). That’s why she feels indebted to Sana who actually went to the extent of paying for her air tickets to save her from hell, and doesn’t complain when the girl calls for an urgent meet-up.

She’s been waiting for about 15 minutes when Sana rushes into the coffee shop, plopping down on the seat opposite her. In typical Sana-fashion, she doesn’t even greet before going straight into the main topic. “Do you want to work for me?”

Mina looks at her, confused. She has been looking for a job ever since she came back from Korea, but it hasn’t been going well. If Sana can offer her a job, that would be the best. But then again, she knows better than to trust any shady job offers after what she had been through, even if this is her best friend talking. “As what?”

“My manager.” Sana replies and it only serves to further Mina’s confusion. Why does Sana need a manager? Thankfully, Sana understands and blabbers on. “Actually, I have something I haven’t told you yet.”

“I’m actually contracted to Avex Group as a model slash actress. And now that my career is starting to take off, I need a manager to help coordinate my schedules.”

Mina just glances at Sana with her jaws slacked. All this time and she didn’t think she had to share this piece of important information with her?! “You took this long to tell me?”

“There just wasn’t a good time to tell you!”

That was true. During the time they met in Korea, she was busy telling her situation to Sana while the latter was busy comforting and reassuring her to actually talk about herself. Maybe that was why Sana was so understanding about her situation, because she works as an actress too and knows the stresses it has (of course, Sana’s situation doesn’t include the ‘night job’ she has). Seeing how Mina hasn’t respond yet, Sana tries to persuade her again.

 “They said I could hire someone I can trust. And who else other than you? You have the experience, and you can be by my side to watch over me.”

It is a no-brainer, really. She needed the money, and it was a job she had experience in. She would be able to take care of Sana, protect her from malicious comments from both haters and jealous colleagues alike (just like how Chaeyoung did for her). She is going to be Sana’s little hero, as how Chaeyoung was hers. “A warning in advance, I’m a pretty strict manager.”

Sana whoops, enveloping Mina in a tight hug. “Heh, you just watch out yourself. I’m not an easy artiste to manage.”

--

Present Time

“Hello, Earth to Mina?” Sana calls out, waving her hands in front of Mina to wake her up from her daze. Mina shakes her head, squeezing her eyes. She has been getting a lot of these flashbacks recently, especially after her meeting with a certain someone.

“I’m sorry, what?” Mina asks sheepishly, totally forgetting what she was doing before zoning out. Sana just shakes her head, glancing at the papers Mina is holding. “Is that my schedule for the next month?”

“Er yes yes!” Mina gets her senses back. She has just received Sana’s schedule for the next month, intending to look through them before she got distracted by her own memories. Sana hums in response as she takes the papers from her, looking at it intensely. Her eyes scan the long list and she lets out a gasp as she points at a schedule on the list.

“Am I actually chosen to be the MC for KCON?!” Sana exclaims, and Mina leans over, following Sana’s finger to a schedule that indeed reads ‘MC for KCON’.

“It seems like it,” Mina replies nonchalantly, not understanding the big hoo-ha over it. Sana grabs her by the shoulders, shaking her. “It means I’m going to meet Dahyun again!”

The fact that Sana said Dahyun instead of TM escaped Mina, who’s too busy freaking out by now. “Wait… TM’s coming for this year’s KCON?”

“Of course! They are the biggest thing in K-Pop now, okay!” Sana retorts and Mina just wants to scream at the girl in front of her. Doesn’t she understand?! It’s great that Sana gets to meet her crush again, but Mina doesn’t give two hoots about that. Because it means she’s going to meet Chaeyoung again.

--

Chaeyoung sits in the studio, for once surrounded by silence instead of a tune she’s working on. It’s hard to focus when your thoughts keep drifting away to somewhere else, to someone else. She just stares at the completed song sitting on her screen, not sure what to do with it. It’s a song about sending your last farewell to an ex-lover, wishing them all the best for their future, but Chaeyoung is not sure if she really can do that. Maybe she should just dump it, she thinks. The door bursts open and Dahyun comes in screeching like a hyena.

“HELP ME!” Dahyun grabs Chaeyoung by the shoulders, shaking her violently. “MY BEST FRIEND. GENIUS COMPOSER OF THE MODERN AGE. YOU HAVE TO HELP ME.”

“Okay first,” Chaeyoung shoves off Dahyun, “you have to tell me what you need help with.”

Dahyun pulls out a thumb drive, almost shoving it into Chaeyoung’s nostril in her haste. Thankfully, the latter escaped the unintended surprise attack with her quick reflexes.

“I’m working on this song and I was intending to take my time with it so I can present it to Sana-chan when I’m done perfecting it but now I’m going to meet her 2 weeks later and I’m still not done with it so please help me!” Dahyun says in one breath and Chaeyoung stares at her fellow rapper, blinking her eyes a few times to register her words.

“You need to breathe,” Chaeyoung tries to calm her friend down with two hands up in front of her, slowly taking the thumb drive from the latter. “and let me listen to this.”

She puts on her headphones, Dahyun’s song playing after a few clicks and she watches as Dahyun looks like she’s almost about to faint from anxiety in front of her, shaking her legs as she waits for her verdict. It’s decent for a first attempt; although the lyrics and arrangement sound awkward at points, there is a hook melody that is easy on the ears and Chaeyoung is sure this is going to be well-liked by the public.

She pulls off her headphones, giving a thumbs-up to the older girl. She opens the song in the music program, waiting for it to boot. “It’s a good song, I’m sure it will do well. I will clean it up for you. When are you meeting Sana again?”

Dahyun looks sheepish now. “During KCON Japan.”

Chaeyoung stills. “Dude, you are not planning to sneak out after our schedule just to meet her right? You know the managers and unnies are going to blow their top if that really happens.”

“No, I’m going to meet her at KCON.” Dahyun answers, averting her gaze now. “Sana is emceeing for KCON.”

Oh. Oh. Then it hits her. Sana is emceeing, which means they will see her. And her staff, which includes her manager. Oh.   

--

a/n: just wanna say i love signal and also someone like me and of course most importantly and obviously, twice

what do you think about their past? is it weird? out of place? pls share your thoughts with me!