“What couldn’t you say through the phone?” Jeongyeon asks Nayeon who is sitting on a black box with her elegant legs crossed.

“What took you so long?”

“Oh sorry, I just had to cross this gigantic stadium." Jeongyeon says with a healthy dose of sarcasm. "What’s up?”

“You did? Sorry about that.” Nayeon apologizes. Not really sorry.

“Bygones be bygones. What’s up?”

“I heard there’s a nice eatery here.”

“And?”

“And, it’s just right outside of the stadium.” She points her index finger outwards.

“I’ve just eaten.” Jeongyeon repels.

“And, I haven’t.” Nayeon indirectly asks Jeongyeon.

“No, no, no.” Jeongyeon throws her hand to Nayeon. “I’m not going, I got things to do.” Jeongyeon turns herself to face the other way. Ready to escape Nayeon.

“No you don’t. Not even leader Park is busy. You’re going with me, honey.” Nayeon pulls her arm.

“So you asked me to walk all the way here, just to walk all the way there?”

Nayeon takes a moment to take in her own ridiculousness. “Yeah, pretty much. Chop chop.”

Jeongyeon is bewilderingly annoyed by Nayeon’s unnecessary request. But after all, Nayeon is her buddy. She can’t help it.

“C’mon honey, don’t freeze. I can’t walk alone.”

And so Jeongyeon went with Nayeon. Without forgetting a taste of bitterness. They walk together. Less than a minute after, Jeongyeon’s mind starts moving.  Her head is putting things together. Everything is adding up.

“You didn’t call me just to walk with you right?” Jeongyeon asks, slowing down her walk.

“What do you mean, you are walking with me right now.”

“No I mean, there’s something going on.”

“Something going on between?” Nayeon plays clueless.

“Something’s up.”

“No something’s not up.” Nayeon denies. With a less than convincing facial expression. “Why?”

Jeongyeon doesn’t answer. She playfully stares at Nayeon.

“Do you have a sixth sense for things like this?” Nayeon is finally giving in.

“Nayeon, you would be last place in a lying competition.”

“Isn’t that like, a good thing? Because if I’d be last place in that competition, I’d be bringing home gold from an honesty competition.”

“Not necessarily.”

“Really though, if you think about it. I would be great¾”

“What’s bothering you?” Jeongyeon catches Nayeon before she wanders to her own world.

“More of a who’s bothering me.”

“Then who’s bothering you?”

“It’s Jihyo.” She says nimbly.

“What did Jihyo do?”

“Wait no.” Nayeon mistepped. “Tzuyu bothered me in the first place. But Jihyo is bothering me by not wanting to help me.”

“Did you have to make everything complicated?” Nayeon baffles Jeongyeon once again.

“I dunno.” Nayeon raises her shoulders.

“Alright, how did Tzuyu bother our great Nayeon-unnie?”

“Funny, Jihyo just said that. I was just talking to her and she said exactly that, ‘our great nayeon unnie.” Nayeon took the wrong road again.

“I thought we were talking about Tzuyu.” Jeongyeon lassos Nayeon back to their world again.

“Oh yeah Tzuyu. Well it’s a long story.”

Jeongyeon takes a look at her phone. “We got about four hours to the show. And as you said, none of us are busy. I think we got a little time to spare.”

“Oh yeah.” Nayeon realizes. “Well, it goes a bit like this.”

“Oh wait, you’re telling the story now?” Jeongyeon is unprepared.

“Yeah, I thought you want to know now.”

“I do, lemme just¾” She zips to a nearby vending machine, inserts a bill, takes a can of coke, and; “Go.”

It was morning in the dorm. Everybody’s off doing their own thing. Chaeyoung and Dahyun are in the office to record Yes or Yes. Mina and Sana are still practicing  since last night. You, Momo and Jihyo, you guys left me. So that leaves me alone with the one and only Tzuyu.

As you know, I woke up really late. And when I opened my phone and see the number eight on it, I immediately rushed outside. Guess who I found in the kitchen cooking ramen. Tzuyu.

So as a normal friendly human would do, I said “Hi, good morning.”

Then Tzuyu replied with a “hi.”

And you know how I love a good morning conversation. So I asked “What are you cooking?”

“Ramen.” She replied.

I asked “Where is everybody?”

“I don’t know, gone.” She then said.

And so I asked something again, right? “Are you ready for the show today?”

Now with this question, she could’ve answer with a “Not really, how about you?” Or a “Yeah, we’re gonna nail this show.” Start a morning talk. But guess what? She became a ing brick wall.

She replied with only the most basic kind of human communication. A “Yes.”

And so before her pack of instant noodles is cooked and ready. And before the two of us meets the point of absolute awkwardness. I can’t help but to sense, this girl doesn’t want me around. She wants me to shut my mouth.

And so that’s how I spent the morning in the dorm. With Tzuyu. In silence.                   

“That’s it?” Jeongyeon asks with her can of coke still halfway empty.

“That’s it.”

“Well Tzuyu has always been a quiet girl. And you’re a terrible storyteller.” Jeongyeon states nothing but the truth.

“To remind you, none of her answer were longer than a sentence.”

“Ok, maybe she’s quiet-er than she normally is.”

“So you’re on me in this?”

“What no, I’m not on you in anything.” Jeongyeon dissapoints Nayeon.

“Oh you’re joking.”

“I’m not. Tzuyu is a little girl, you know. She’s just not the type of girl who’d open up to everyone.”

“Not even the person she’s spent almost three years with?” Nayeon gives a sensible reason, for once.

“Ok, that’s a good point.”

“What should I do, Jeongyeon.”

“Oh now you’re asking me for help?”

“You’re the who asked me what’s going on.” She throws back.

“And you can’t do it yourself?”

“If I could do it myself, I wouldn’t have ask you to come here.”

“Why can’t you do it yourself again?”

“Jihyo couldn’t help me. And now my long-friend is in the same position?” Nayeon says, in a slightly angered tone. Let down.

Jeongyeon smiles. And when she can’t hold it anymore, she says; “I was just teasing you. I’ll talk to her.”

“Screw you.” Nayeon says, giggling Jeongyeon.

Nayeon lovingly stares at the laughing Jeongyeon. She smiles at her friend until she started laughing too. She laughs out of nowhere. Growing from a little laugh to a big laugh. To the point where Jeongyeon’s laugh is a mosquito sting compared to Nayeon’s.

“Why are you laughing.” Jeongyeon asks, staringly weirded out

“There are no eateries in this stadium, moron. I was just asking you to go with me to the toilet.” She points to a toilet sign as she continue her hysterical laugh.

Jeongyeon’s extreme perplexity turns into extreme exasperation. Jeongyeon one, Nayeon two.

“Laugh it up, grandma.”