SinB had tried and tried calling the number back all weekend, but every time she called it went to voicemail. It was frustrating, but she tried to remain unbothered. Every time, she left a voicemail saying that once again they’d missed the call and that she wanted to sort out whatever they wanted to talk about. She came to the conclusion that it had to be someone from school, but had no idea who it could be seeing as only Yerin and Umji had her number.

On Monday morning she decided to give up on whoever it was. They were probably just messing with her anyway. She went into school as normal and went about her business as usual. Her friends were in detention at lunch for forgetting their homework so couldn’t hang out with her. Instead of sitting in the canteen area on her own, she decided to go and get some of her music done. She trudged over to the music block and walked along the empty corridors, she found all of the music teachers sat in their make-shift staffroom and asked for permission to use the recording room. Miss Kim agreed, telling her it was already unlocked, so she could head on over. She walked along the corridor in the other direction, past all of the quiet classrooms. From somewhere at the other end of the quiet hallway she heard the most beautiful voice she’d ever come across, so she followed the sound until she found the room it was coming from. Funnily enough it was her practice room, the one she always used. Now she was standing outside of the room, she could hear the lyrics clearly. ‘Every little thing I do, Never seems enough for you, You don’t wanna lose it again, But I’m not like them’ She could feel all of the emotion behind the sorrowful lyrics, and every note pulled at her heartstrings. She wasn’t sure who it was on the other side of the door, but she felt all of the hurt that they poured into every single word, and it hurt her. She sunk down against the wall and listened to the song as she watched the snowflakes out of the window opposite her lazily fall, dancing to the melody she listened to. ‘Baby, when you finally, Get to love somebody, Guess what, It’s gonna be me’ as the last note rang out, she heard whoever it was heave a sigh that sounded somewhat familiar….

She stood up quickly, pretending that she had just been walking down the corridor when she heard the person in the room shuffling around- probably getting ready to leave. She stood right next to the door, unsure as to whether she should just walk in pretending to be innocent and unknowing, whether to knock, or whether to just use the room next door. She opted for the last choice, and entered the other room. There was a reason she always liked to use the same room: it was warmer, it had the least graffiti, and the equipment was usually kept tidier which made her life easier when using it. She looked around the room and began organising some of the wires that’d been left strewn across the small mixing desk and keyboard. She then switched on the keyboard and played a few notes before switching everything on and firing up the computer to play what she had already created. ‘Gosh, why is everything being so slow today? Maybe the cold is causing problems with the connection’ she thought to herself. After a few minutes she started to press a few more keys on the keyboard, just to pass time while she waited for the computer to fire up. The door suddenly opened quite dramatically and a student was talking “Thanks Miss Kim for letting me use the equipment, I’m sure that … SinB! …. hi…. Sorry… I thought you were a teacher…” she hadn’t even needed to turn around to know who it was, but turned around when she heard Yuju talking. Surprise was written across both girls’ faces. SinB smiled shyly. After releasing a deep breath she spoke in response

“Hi, Yuju… I ummm… I actually wanted to speak to you… ummm…. About last week. I… ummm…. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, and I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on your conversation and I know I was a total jerk. Well… I was wondering… what would you… I was wondering what you would say if I asked to start again?” she finished her short monologue with a small shy smile and tore her eyes up from the floor to look at the other girl. She was smiling equally awkwardly back at SinB.

“I would say I’m really sorry for everything, and that I’d love to try things again; because I want to make our friendship work. I mean every single word of that.” SinB’s smile turned into a grin that mirrored the one Yuju was giving her. She closed the gap between them and gave Yuju a bear hug.

“I’m really sorry for how I acted. I promise that I’m not usually like that. Thank you for giving me another chance to prove it to you”. Yuju wrapped her arms around the younger girl’s shoulders.

“We’re both only human, we make mistakes.” She smiled against the other girls’ cheek. “Can I ummm… can I explain what happened between me and Eunha? I don’t know what you heard, but I want to clear things up.” SinB pulled away a little so she could look Yuna in the eye, her smile faltering a little. Her eyes had a tone of nervousness to them, but she managed to hold her smile.

“Only if you want to… I’m happy enough to forget the whole thing happened but if it’d make you feel better to explain” Yuju smiled gently at the younger girl’s sincerity.

“I’d like to explain what happened so that you can see how much I want to fix this.” So she explained the entire situation to SinB, just as she had to Yerin on Friday. At the end of her explanation she looked SinB in the eye and could see all of the confusion in the frantic twitches. “Are you okay? SinB… what’s going on?” she watched as the other girl took a few deep breaths and ran her hand through her hair.

“You threw it all away… because of me…?” her voice came out quietly, like she hadn’t even meant to say it. But the words hung in the air between them.

“Yes, and I’d do it all again. I don’t want to be that person who has to put up a constant façade. I don’t want everyone to expect things of me when all I want to do some days is just cuddle up on the sofa in a blanket with someone like you and watch kids’ movies. I don’t want to be that person who everyone mistakes for being fake when I just want to care for you. I just want to be me, and if people don’t like that, then they should stop showing such an interest in my life, and if giving it all up is how I have to get there, so be it” there was a tone of certainty to her voice that SinB had only ever heard in her presidential campaigns- when she promised the whole school that she would take their ideas into consideration, that she’d listen to their views. At the time, SinB had just dismissed it all as political spiel to win her the position, but she could see now that Yuju was a genuine person who didn’t want to play games with people, who just wanted the best for them. SinB smiled broadly at the older girl. Her heart was fluttering at everything she’d heard and she now knew that she had acted completely wrong.

“After everything you did for me, I acted like such a jerk. I’m so sorry. How can I make it up to you?” she looked pleadingly into Yuju’s eyes, who only smiled in response. She waved off the comment like it was nothing.

“You don’t have to make it up to me. Based on what you heard, you were justified in being mad. I don’t blame you for it” she reached for SinB’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She pulled her in close, and wrapped an arm around the younger girl’s shoulders, whispering quietly into her ear “If you really want to make it up to me, you’ll let me listen to your work of art as it currently stands though. And then you’ll cuddle up on a sofa with me under a blanket and watch kid’s movies until I forgive you” her coarse whisper was playful and friendly. SinB knew she was asking more for permission than she was giving an instruction. She smiled and nodded in response. She didn’t think she could formulate words with how flustered she was and so turned around before Yuju could see the glowing blush that had overcome her entire face. She sat Yuju in the wheelie chair and pushed it across the room to where the computer now sat ready. SinB pressed a few keys and mouse clicked a couple times and the software opened. She pressed play and let the music play to the whole room. Out loud, she could identify areas of weakness of which she made mental notes to correct later. When the piece came to a close, Yuju spun the chair around to face SinB who was calculating on her fingers how many things she’d have to correct. “That was fantastic. You’ve done so much work on it in just a week. What are you going to do with it when it’s actually finished?” her eyes filled with innocent curiosity which SinB found herself gushing at.

“I… ummm… I’ll just keep it for sentimentality sake. I told Miss Kim she could listen to it, and one of her friends…ummm… Tiffany I think it was… she wanted to listen to it- she works for a radio station. I don’t think anything will actually happen with it though. I’ll probably just keep it for the sake of it.” Yuju’s eyes lit up when SinB mentioned all the critique she could get on her work.

“If they think your work is any good, they could help you get your foot in the door with music producers. Most radio presenters interact with singers and producers quite frequently, maybe this Tiffany will be able to help point you in the right direction” She was grinning, and it was contagious because the excitement was now rubbing off onto SinB. She hadn’t really thought about it in that way so it added pressure to her already existing nervousness, but she was still buzzing at the prospect of it actually helping her to springboard into something.

“I hadn’t actually thought about it like that, but that makes me feel a million times better about it. Thanks.” she flashed a warm genuine smile at the older girl, whose cheeks blushed immediately. “Anyway… what were you using the equipment for? Has my artistic genius inspired you?” she continued with a chuckle. Yuju looked down at her lap, a shy smile crossing her lips.

“Ummm… it’s a personal thing. I’ll show you soon, not today though.” She glanced back up to SinB who gave her warm smile. She nodded in response. “SinB?” said girl hummed for her to continue. “I’m glad we’re okay. I felt so bad for upsetting you, and I wasn’t even sure what it was that I’d done. So I’m glad we were able to fix our friendship” SinB found the other girl adorable as she wore her heart on her sleeve with this whole-hearted confession.

“I’m glad you’re able to look past my behaviour and forgive me. I really wanted to make this better, so I’m happy that you wanted to fix this as much as I did” both girls smiled warmly at each other. If this was a movie, or even a drama, you would confess to her. Or you’d lean in and kiss her. SinB thought to herself. She laughed at the thought, and laughed out loud. “Look at us being all cheesy and sentimental here. This side of me only ever comes out when I’m drunk” SinB says jokingly. Yuju laughs shyly at the comment. And yet here I am, drunk on the thought of you, barely keeping it together. SinB thought internally. There was a slightly glazed expression on Yuna’s face, and it worried SinB a little. “Hey... umm Yuju… you okay?” the other girl was wrenched out of her thoughts in an instant and smiled warmly at SinB.

“Yeah, sorry, got caught up in my head for a second” she laughed shyly. SinB got no further in her production today, but spent the whole time talking and having fun with the older girl instead. She knew then that everything was going to be okay between them.

Author's note: hey guys, back again. The song used in this chapter is 'Gonna Be Me' by NSYNC (they were the OG boygroup when I was a kid). I feel like it's important to say that this song is actually where the origins of this story came from because I was listening to it around Christmas time and then BAM got hit with ideas like a truck- not literally but it felt like it XD.

Still got some ideas for what's to come next, so hopefully you shouldn't be waiting millennia for updates. BUT I can't promise you won't be, life is getting a bit chaotic for me right now.

That's all from me for now. Thanks to all of you who are showing love to this story by subscribing commenting on or voting up- I appreciate you all so much. Take care of yourselves, and if it's snowing where you are like it is here, wrap up warm and stay safe. Love and hugs xoxo