The dance practice session after Yaebin told her about the photograph was hell. Eunwoo kept missing her steps, forgetting her lines. Yaebin noticed it of course and it only made her start thinking too much into things, thus making mistakes as well.

Their dance teacher wasn’t amused in the slightest as the both of them pushed back the whole team’s progress. All ten of them were given punishments throughout the practice session. It only made things worse for Eunwoo and Yaebin, knowing that it was their fault for the most of it.

“Worst. Practice. Ever.” Kyungwon exclaims once she sees the dance teacher going out the door and shutting it close, “honestly, I wanted to die. Like, legitimately die,” she sprawls on the floor.

Yaebin smiles apologetically, “sorry, Kyungwon unnie.”

Kyla butts in, “seriously unnie, what has gotten into you and Eunwoo unnie?” her eyes shifts at Eunwoo who’s seen sitting on the floor next to Jieqiong with her head leaning against the girl’s shoulder, “I mean, I know it’s normal for Eunwoo unnie to do mistakes but you? You rarely do,”

Yaebin sighs, “I know.. I guess we both were just out of it today,”

“Yah,” Jieqiong lifts her right shoulder for a split second purposely to get Eunwoo’s attention, “you okay?”

A soft “hmm” is all she gets.

“You guys have been ditching me so much you even lost all your concentration on the dance moves,” Jieqiong says jokingly, although she isn’t so sure about the joking part.

The Chinese girl’s remark catches Eunwoo’s attention, “ditching you?” she removes her head from Jieqiong’s shoulder, “what makes you think we did that?”

“When was the last time all three of us hung out together?”

“How the hell would I remember that?”

Jieqiong snaps, “it was two weeks ago!”

Eunwoo is shocked for words, “it.. it was that long ago?”

Jieqiong huffs, “yes, so I have the right to feel left out,” she folds her arms.

“Hey, I’m sorry you felt that way,” Eunwoo pats her cheeks, “that wasn’t our intention at all.”

Jieqiong unfolds her arms and starts holding onto Eunwoo’s shoulders so that they would be eye to eye, “you’re telling me the truth?”

Eunwoo doesn’t even blink, “yes, Ma’am.”

Jieqiong bursts into laughter and continues to lean her back against the wall.

“So.. can I borrow your shoulder again?” Eunwoo timidly asks.

Jieqiong unknowingly smiles, “you may.”

Eunwoo shifts her body closer and makes herself comfortable on the familiar shoulder again. She feels her cheeks getting warm and tries her hardest to ignore it but to no avail. In the end she lets it be the way it is because she knows Jieqiong wouldn’t be able to notice anyway.

Yaebin does, though as she’s been looking at their antics from afar. She smirks when she realizes Eunwoo has been blushing since she knows damn well that her best friend has a big fat crush on a certain Chinese girl even if she never said anything about it. Yaebin’s not the only person who’s like an open book, apparently.

“Yaebin-ah,”

Before she can even respond to the familiar voice, she feels her body being engulfed in an innocent side hug. Soft breaths start tickling her neck and her conscience about to be thrown out the window. Luckily, she’s a lot stronger than she thinks she is.

“Hey, Minkyung unnie.”

“I really hate you, you know that? You made us go through all that punishment,” Minkyung says as she pulls her head back a bit to have a better look at the younger girl, “I’m dead tired,”

Yaebin chuckles, “sorry about that unnie. Won’t happen again, I promise.”

“You think you’re getting off that easily?”

Yaebin fakes a gulp, “oh no.. what do I have to do to make you forgive me?” she complains dramatically for bigger effect.

“To compensate for your mistakes.. how about we go for some ice cream later?” Minkyung smiles, expecting a loud ‘yes’ as an answer.

Yaebin slowly starts to frown,”oh.. unnie.. I’m sorry but I already have plans with-“

“Eunwoo?” Minkyung cuts her off.

Yaebin can’t help but be surprised, “actually, yeah. I’m so sorry, unnie. Maybe next time?”

“Did you know what happened just now?” Yaebin says as she takes a sip of her shared drink with Eunwoo.

“Of course not. I’m not psychic,” Eunwoo voices out teasingly , her hand reaching for another bite of the churros she bought five minutes ago.

“Minkyung unnie wanted to go for ice cream,”

“Do you want me to congratulate you or ..?” she doesn’t have time to take another piece of her churros until Yaebin starts pinching her arm, “ouch! Hey!! What the hell did you do that for?”

“You should be thankful I opted to go out with you rather than Minkyung unnie!”

“It’s not my fault you found out someone saw our photograph!”

“It technically is your fault that the photograph is even there in the first place!”

Eunwoo rolls her eyes, “oh please you gotta admit you would’ve wanted to see the photograph too,”

Yaebin can only glare at the person standing next to her, “yes I would but still..”

“The person who found it couldn’t have been Minkyung unnie.” Eunwoo simply says.

“How would you know that? Just before we got here she already knew I was about to go out here with you,” Yaebin sighs.

“I don’t know,” she’s munching on her last piece now, “it’s just not possible,”

“Do you think we’ll ever figure out the person who found it?”

“We should be able to know sooner or later.”

It’s their day off from practice. The day they’ve been waiting for practically the whole week. Some of them decide to spend their time out of the dorm hanging with their respective friends while other opt to rest and laze around now that they have the chance to.

Minkyung is lying on her bed, with a One Piece manga in her hand. She should be focusing on the storyline happening before her but who is she kidding? She knows she has no idea what’s going on because her mind drifted off since the past ten minutes.

“I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you, Luffy,” she says to no one in particular as she closes the manga and set it down. She sighs loudly, as if wanting the others to know how messed up her brain is acting. Just then, she feels a kick from below her bed.

“Yah, you okay up there?” Kyungwon asks as she’s scrolling through pictures of her pet dog.

Minkyung closes her eyes in frustration, “honestly? I don’t even know,” she utters.

“Is something bothering you?”

“Do you think I’ve changed?”

“No? You’re still as annoying as ever,”

Minkyung peeks her head to the lower bunk of the bed so she can look at Kyungwon, “I’m being serious!”

Kyungwon notices and locks her phone before putting it away, “well, are you gonna tell me anything or not?”

“I’m not sure where to start..”

Kyungwon chuckles, “we have all day, remember? Now is the time for chit chats, gossips and stupid talks. So, spill it already.”

“Do you think Yaebin hates me?”

“You’re kidding right?”

“I’m not..”

“She practically worships you? I thought that was obvious enough,”

“To say that she worships me is going overboard, Kyungwon-ah.”

The said girl then sits up, “you know what I meant,”

Minkyung doesn’t say anything, she doesn’t know what else to think. It feels like suddenly all the vocabs she’s learnt are gone in a quick puff.

Kyungwon takes it as a signal to go on, “also, isn’t this what you wanted?”

The question catches Minkyung off guard, “huh? What do you mean?”

“I remember years ago when you and that kid got closer, you said she was a very clingy person. The girl absolutely loved doing skinship with you, I’m sure she still does, and since it happened so frequently you came to me and complained about it,”

“But that was years ago! I wasn’t used to such things yet..”

“Still, you complained. And now you’re complaining about something that’s the complete opposite, am I right?”

“Y-yeah..”

“Listen, Yaebin could never hate you. It would be the end of the ing world if she ever does,”

Minkyung cracks a bittersweet smile at that statement.

“Maybe.. she got tired,” Kyungwon continues.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s always been her. It’s never been you.”

Minkyung retorts, “that’s.. not true..” she stares at the ceiling above her. The words Kyungwon said cut her through like knives but she knows deep in her heart, there is some truth to it.

“Even if it isn’t 100% the truth, there is some to it.”

“I guess you could be right,”

Kyungwon gets off her bed before taking one final look at the tall girl on the upper bunk of the bed, “just think about what I said, okay?”

Minkyung simply nods as she watches Kyungwon leaving the room.

She buries her head in her pillow.

Yaebin wakes up with a loud grunt. She has never felt so tired from literally doing nothing all day. She rubs her eyes and checks her surroundings. Eunwoo is still fast asleep, her shirt lifted all the way to her upper stomach, almost revealing her chest. Yaebin can only snicker quietly as she sees her best friend’s state whenever she’s asleep.

The house could be on fire and the girl wouldn’t even notice, Yaebin thinks.

Yaebin gets up from her bed and reaches to Eunwoo to pull down her shirt when the door to their shared room suddenly opens and reveals a freshly showered Minkyung.

Yaebin would know since she recognizes the smell of her shampoo all too well.

“Minkyung unnie,” she blurts out, her hand still on Eunwoo’s bare stomach.

Minkyung doesn’t fail to realize that of course, but she quickly shifts her vision towards the shorter girl instead, “you look kind of puffy. Were you sleeping?”

Yaebin continues pulling down Eunwoo’s shirt before taking the blanket below the girl’s feet and putting it on top to cover her, “yeah I just woke up actually,”

“I see.” is all Minkyung responds.

“Is.. everything okay?” Yaebin asks uncertainly.

“O-oh! Yes, everything’s fine. I just- I was wondering if you’re still up for ice cream,”she utters as she plays with her own fingers.

Yaebin laughs, “but unnie, it’s 11pm and it’s freezing cold outside.”

“Right.. right..” Minkyung starts scratching the back of her neck, feeling a little embarrassed, “well if you think now’s not a good time, that’s fine.”

Yaebin takes a look out the window before looking back at the taller person standing at the door. She contemplates a bit before giving a small smile, “you know what? Let’s just go now.”

Minkyung is puzzled for a second, “you’re being serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she reaches for Minkyung’s left hand, “besides, I miss hanging out with you,”

Minkyung’s cheeks start to feel warm.

To say that Jieqiong is exhausted would be an understatement. Going back and forth between her home country and Korea can be a real pain in the . But it’s for her source of income and as much as she wants to, she really doesn’t think she has the right to complain. Right now she’s just glad she’s ten steps away from arriving at the dorm.

She twists the door knob open and pulls her luggage into the space. She closes the door shut before letting out a soft sigh. “I’m home!”

Right after she takes off her shoes, she sees Eunwoo approaching her. She notices that the girl’s right eye being a little red.

“Welcome home,” Eunwoo says while rubbing her eyes.

Jieqiong halts her ministrations, “stop that, you’re gonna make your eyes even redder,”

Eunwoo pouts.

Jieqiong proceeds to pinch the girl’s cheeks, “were you having a nap? Why are you up already?”

“I heard the door opening and your voice woke me up..”

Jieqiong’s face begins to slowly form a grin, “you wake up to my voice now?”

Eunwoo rolls her eyes, “stop taking my words out of context,” she heads to the couch and turns on the TV.

Jieqiong follows suit, “Eunwoo-yah,”

“Hm?”

“I’m so tired.”

“Go sleep then.”

The Chinese girl starts to lean on Eunwoo’s shoulder, “I’m too lazy to go to my room.”

Eunwoo lets out a hearty laugh, “what do you want me to do then?”

“Lend me your shoulder for ten minutes.”

“Ten whole minutes? My shoulder would turn stiff by then,”

Jieqiong only whines.

Eunwoo eventually gives in (like she always does).

Silence engulfs them for a few moments before Eunwoo breaks it.

“Did you see Yaebin at the lobby when you came?”

“No. Why?”

“Nothing. She isn’t in the room or anywhere in the dorm. I was wondering where she went when I woke up and saw that she wasn’t in bed.”

“Maybe she went out somewhere.”

Eunwoo shrugs, “probably.”

A frown gradually forms on the Chinese girl’s face. Yaebin and Eunwoo. The duo doesn’t sound the same to her anymore. Their actions don’t look the same to her anymore.

She recalls to the time when she went into their room in search of Eunwoo’s mirror. They were about to head to practice together before the latter kindly (annoyingly) asked for her help since she already wore her shoe and was lazy to take them off.

“It’s a small one, I think I put it in one of the pillow cases,” she remembers Eunwoo’s description clearly.

And so she did as she was told.

One thing is for sure, she did not expect to go in the room originally in search of a mirror, but having found a photograph instead.

A photograph of Eunwoo and Yaebin.

Her two members,

Her two best friends of four years,

Kissing on the lips.

a/n: it's been so long rip lol i've been busy with college, hope yall aren't forgetting this fic already! thanks for reading~