9 months later…

“The mics and ears working well for all of you?” The PD comes by again and checks the settings on the mics strapped to the back of their dresses.

“Yeah.” They murmured in unison.

“We’re wrapping up the last performance. When the lights go off on the panel there, you’re good to head out on stage.”

They nod again in response. They had been waiting backstage in the hallways for the last hour and the nerves were starting to eat at all of them. After years of training, they’ve reached an end and a beginning: their debut. They couldn’t put together in words what they were feeling.

Proud? Exhilarated? Anxious? It didn’t even begin to cover it. It almost feels like they’ve been waiting too long, restless to finally get the moment they’ve been anticipating. Their training years have consumed their lives, making this one moment the pinnacle of all their work.

“Ok. Let’s do this guys. Don’t lose the moustaches. We got this.” Yongsun says as lightheartedly as she could. They give her playful looks of anticipation, and Wheein cackles lightly at the face Moonbyul makes.

Yongsun wet her lips again and tugs on the bottom of her skirt. The funny thing about nerves was that it almost always came with an adrenaline she fed on, it’s what she lived for. Wheein and Hyejin are standing around taking deep breaths and Moonbyul takes little sips from her water bottle. They were all visibly nervous but it’s alright, they were born for this. Just don’t up.

The lights are shades of orange and yellow, illuminating the four of them as they strut onto the stage. Their heels clicks on the stairs up to the glossy floor, aggravating the nervous clench in their stomachs.

Yongsun struggles to breathe. . It was just so bright and tightens.

She couldn’t see the audience, which was good, because if she saw everyone’s eyes, watching in anticipation, or worse, seeing barely an audience, she would just stop breathing altogether.

Yongsun feels a squeeze in her left hand, and turns ever so slightly to see Moonbyul wink and give her nod as she steps onto edge of stage from the stairs. She looks back and grins at Moonbyul, reciprocating her nod. She takes a deep breath, the sides of her lips twitching upwards as she holds back a smile and finally embraces the feeling of being on stage.

//

“Good job girls. It went well.” CEO Kim Do Hoon and 2 other PDs stood offstage with them after they walk off.

“Breath. It was ok. Granted there are things to work on but good. We’ll run over things at the meeting tomorrow so you guys will be off after the fitting and interview backstage today.”

They were all smiling now, still high off the adrenaline on stage. They nod towards the CEO and murmur a thank you to the staff, heading off to the backstage hallways.

“You said don’t drop the moustache then proceeded to drop your own damn moustache?” Moonbyul teases as they walk down the corridors by the dressing rooms. 

Yongsun puts her hands in her face. “Ugh. I know. It just slipped off. I tried to kick it away” She whines and Wheein laughs in response.

“I know. Mine of slipping too but I think all the nervous sweating kept it on, who knew I sweat from my fingers.” Wheein jokes.

“I almost laughed when I saw you kick it away.” Moonbyul laughs.

“, I didn’t even see it happen. Y’all like stealthy ninjas.” Hyejin says.

“Apparently not ninja enough…” Yongsun mutters.

They rush off to get to some of the backstage interviews done with manager unnie leading them to greet a series of different people. It wasn’t one of their first interviews but there was still a degree of anticipation with it since they were rookies. It feels amazing though. To finally feel like they’re starting their careers, that people would finally see all the work they had put in.

//

“I’m starving!” Moonbyul whines loudly from inside her room. “It smells amazing, what the hell are you making?”

“What?? I can’t hear you from in there. Stop yelling.” Yongsun yells back as she stirs the soup another time before moving to plate her rice and side dishes. Moonbyul gets up and trudges out into the kitchen area, smoothing out her bed head since Yongsun woke her up not too long ago.

“Did Hyejin leave to record? Wait. Unnie, I thought you were doing that diet?” She stops and inhales deeply as she passes a plate of noodles. “Oh. my god. Can I have some?”

“Yeah, She’s doing her parts today, I’m going in later. And yeah…It’s for you. You said you were hungry, so… eat.”

“Oh wow. Okay… not going to refuse that.” Moonbyul is already grabbing a spoon and pulling out a chair. “Have I mentioned how much I love you? You’re really not having any?”

Yongsun does a double take from the kitchen. “What? No…I can’t. Ugh. This diet , why did I think this was a good idea?”

Moonbyul gets up to grab a drink. “I have no idea. Is this about the cheek fat again? It’s cute. Keep it.” She gives her a playful grin and pokes her on the cheek.

“No, it’s more of an everything fat.”

“Is the company telling you to?” She asks guardedly, moving to rest her chin on Yongsun’s shoulder whilst she cleans up at the stove.

“No… I just thought I’d get ahead of the game you know, before promotions for our new songs come around again.”

Moonbyul laughs and proceeds to plop herself back down to eat. “Just eat then. You’re not fat.”

“You’re my friend. Your opinion’s biased.” She states matter-of-factly, throwing her a look as she pulls a chair out for herself.

“It’s the truth. You’re pretty.” Moonbyul winks and swipes a finger under Yongsun’s chin at the same time.

Yongsun’s eyes widen a little. It’s gone in less than a second.

“Ugh. You make me cringe. Stop doing your flirt thing.” Yongsun is sitting next to her with her knees pulled up on the chair to her chest.

“Shut up. You love it.” Moonbyul grins a wide cheeky grin, winking again for good measure.

Yongsun does an exaggerated eye-roll and they sit in a peaceful silence as Moonbyul starts eating.

“You’re eating so slow… put some of the other stuff on— here just give it to me.” Yongsun mutters. She sighs exasperatedly and holds out a hand for the spoon. Moonbyul looks up and laughs again.

“Knew you’d cave, here.”

She hands her the spoon. Yongsun places some of all the side dishes on the spoon with some rice and turns to face Moonbyul with the spoon in hand. Moonbyul looks at her in surprise.

“What so you’re not eating it? You’re just going to…feed it to me?”

“Just let me do it. It’ll feel like I’m eating it.” Yongsun doesn’t really know what spurred this on, she had felt compelled to watch her eat well, perhaps that would take away some of her hunger?

“How exactly is this going to be like you’re eating it?”

“Just come here. Eat.”

Moonbyul chuckles as she leans in. “Whatever floats your boat, weirdo.”

She sees Yongsun pile food onto the spoon diligently and smiles at how this unnie could always find something that’d surprise her or make her laugh. Yongsun looks up, carefully balancing the food on the spoon and grinned at her before trying to stuff all the food on the spoon into Moonbyul’s mouth. Yongsun watches as Byul tries to hold everything in with her hand, she looks adorable, hair a little messy too after waking up. She leans forward to finger-comb down a few stray hairs on Byul’s head.

“I may have put a little too much on that one.”

“A little?” It comes out as nonsense, with Moonbyul’s cheeks puffed out, food barely held in the mouth.

Yongsun laughs. “And you say I’m cute.” She rolls her eyes. “Don’t choke.”

Moonbyul feels a tug somewhere deep in her as she hears Yongsun’s words. She’s really glad Yongsun’s staying here with Hyejin and her.

//

“Where is she?” Byul asks sitting cross-legged on the dance practice room floor. She looks up expectantly from the floor, her hand holding her phone in her lap from scrolling endlessly as they wait for Hyejin to get there.

“Late.” Wheein mumbles leaning against the mirror and takes a bite out of an apple. “Let’s do unnie’s and my part first. We can just add her in later. Plus, she texted me Almost there! ten minutes ago so… give or take another half hour?”

Yongsun groans from the piano chair. “She’s hopeless, this kid.”

Wheein just nods sympathetically in response, seemingly unfazed after all the years she’s had to grow accustom to it. Moonbyul pulls herself off the ground and grabs a pen from her bag. “Well… I’m going to go write lyrics next door then. I’ll come back for choreography later, maybe we can get everything done before manager unnie comes to pick us up for the event. If not Hyejin’s buying us dinner.”

Yongsun nods in agreement. “Meat! Hyejin can’t say no to meat.”

She waves them a casual good-bye with a pen in her hand as she walks out. It used to bug her that she had to go write lyrics by herself when the rest of the group worked on their harmonies and arrangement. It made her feel like she was lacking, left out. She’s gotten a feel to rapping now, the groove and cadences came a lot more naturally.

She likes it. It fits her, she feels a certain degree of power and exhilaration when she writes a good piece and performs it.

Back then, she was struggling to find her place in the group. Vocally she knew she couldn’t compete and they were a vocal group. Sometimes being the rapper felt like she stuck out in all the wrong ways. She knows she wouldn’t have gotten here without her members. Not without Wheein fervently convincing her she had something to be proud about. Not without Hyejin along her side, both of them creating a rapping style unique to themselves. And definitely not without the countless hours Yongsun spends, at the company and at home, helping her with flow and inspiration for lyrics. It became a thing that they mutually relied on when they were stuck in their heads, whenever either one would asked if they wanted to work on their songs, they knew they’d spend ages working on it into the late hours of the night, eventually exhausted and asleep on the bed.

She settles into one of the practice rooms by the dance studio and works on a couple lines. She has one earbud in, bouncing to the beat on loop, trying to find the find the words with the right fit. She eventually hears the three-part harmonies from the other room, knowing Hyejin managed to show her face at some point. She’s still going to give her for it, she’s late all the time, might as well guilt her into buying them all some food. And plus, they’re all carnivores.  

Moonbyul eventually returns next door to catch Yongsun belting the last note to Mr. ambiguous. Yongsun’s runs never fails to impress her no matter how many times she hears it. She feels the same smile of adoration tugging at her lips as she feels the emotions Yongsun embeds into her singing. Especially when Yongsun squeezes her eyes shut, hands waving, body bending over with the notes she carries.

She makes it seem so effortless to belt. So effortless to be amazing. She stares a little longer than necessary.

“Unnie! Let’s do a run over the new choreography. Apparently we’re getting dancers for the intro part so we’re going to have to come up with some transition moves.” Wheein cranes her head towards Moonbyul as she moves to the speakers to change the song, breaking Moonbyul out of her little stupor.

“Yeah, okay.” Moonbyul walks over and drapes her arms over Yongsun shoulders, leaning some of her weight on her. Her cheek rests against Yongsun’s hair and she feels Yongsun relax into her hold, one of her arms reaching up to hold onto Moonbyul’s wrist that was now resting across her chest.

“You smell nice.” Moonbyul nuzzles her nose into the hair around Yongsun’s neck and Yongsun hums in acknowledgement.

She doesn’t know when it started and even if she tried to remember it now she doesn’t think she can pinpoint when things changed. The touching. It was so natural, unconscious most of the time really. Working together, living together, even sleeping in bed together sometimes, it’s all just so easy. She didn’t even have to think about it. She was a touchy person. It wasn’t just Yongsun. She just saw Yongsun the most, that’s why.

“You finally decided to shower?” Moonbyul teases.

Yongsun laughs in response before mockingly acting offended. She pulls away from Moonbyul’s embrace and playfully smacks her on the shoulder repeatedly.

“I shower! I shower normally!” Yongsun all but yells at Byul.

There’s a reciprocating snicker as Byul feints defeat, shielding herself with her arms. Moonbyul reaches out for Yongsun’s arm again once Yongsun stops hitting her comically, pulling her close and resuming her previous position.

“So… what moves are we thinking about?” Moonbyul says to everyone.

“Nothing really? We’ve didn’t get to it yet.” Yongsun mutters.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll make up for the time we lost.” Hyejin says cheekily, knowing they probably would’ve gotten an extra thirty minutes if she was on time.

Yongsun raises her hands in defense. “I didn’t say anything this time.”

“No. You thought it.” Moonbyul adds by her ear. Her chuckling breath tickling Yongsun. She doesn’t see Yongsun close her eyes for just a second.

“Yeah, okay. That’s why I have some ideas.” Hyejin moves to stand in front of the mirror, letting Wheein know when to start the track and proceeds to show them a series of moves.

“How about this?” Hyejin asks in between moves. “Unnie, we need something for the last four bars before we enter.”

“Okay. Let’s try this.” Byul untangles herself from Yongsun and moves closer to Hyejin, mirroring some of Hyejin’s poses before changing it up a little.

The four of them manage to come to a consensus about the moves and run through their performances before their manager came. Then it was all get-up-and-go as the staff pulls the four of them in a hurry to make-up and wardrobe prepping for their event.

//

There’s this thing they’ve uncoordinatedly started to do on stage. Play. I