[CONTENTID1]Sleep[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]13[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

Soyeon loved reading. 

She loved gliding the pads of her fingers across the textured pages as her eyes focused on each and every sentence, admiring how each one didn't particularly stand on its own but worked in sync with one another to build a world she could immerse herself in.

She could escape, slip away into a different dimension, between the thin planes of the flimsy pages that were somehow sturdy enough to hold another universe—even if was just for a little while. 

After all, not counting her sister, Soyeon didn't have many friends growing up.

Well, that was sugarcoating things. She had precisely none. None until (G)I-DLE was formed. And even then, without sharing similar dreams and the serendipitous event of being placed in the same group, Soyeon was certain that she would still be living her life as a hermit. Growing up hearing that you weren’t tall enough, that you weren’t pretty enough, that you simply weren’t enough, made for some thick skin. But it also made for a lonely person. 

No one wanted to be friends with someone who had nothing to offer but imperfections. 

So, before (G)I-DLE, she met people through prose. She learned about them through lengthy descriptions. She took note of their virtues and their vices. She familiarized herself with their idiosyncrasies and routines. However, the thing about fictional characters was that they didn't talk back. They couldn't travel from their dimension into hers and keep her company. She learned about them, but they never inquired about her.

Did she have a hard time back then? Sure.

But did she regret it? Not at all.

In fact, she was grateful that she had a library of stories in her head that gave her endless inspiration for her—relatively successful—songwriting endeavors. Plus, life wasn't so bad now. It didn't matter now that she didn't have a group of people to sit with at lunchtime in high school. It didn't matter now that she didn't have someone who she knew would always pick her to work with for some stupid group project. It didn't matter now that the immature guys in her grade used to snicker at her when she walked past them. None of that mattered now. Because now she could say that she had a group of people who actually cared.

Soojin texted her more often than her own mother asking if she ate in her signature short sentences that probably would be perceived as cold if you weren't close with her. Minnie always made sure to remind her to get some rest whenever they crossed paths in the narrow hallway of their dorm or the wider halls of their company building. Miyeon listened to her rambles when they were roommates, and now mainly through text, and comforted her with an impressive neverending amount of optimism. Shuhua commonly peeked her head into her studio to offer her some sort of joke to lighten up the studio on her longer workdays and usually made sure to lecture Yuqi to stop disturbing their leader in the process. 

And Yuqi. Yuqi may as well have stuck beside her like glue. Not that she was complaining. It was nice to feel wanted, to know that you were enough. Her members made sure of that. She supposed Yuqi just really liked to make sure that there weren't any alternative interpretations. She was enough. More than enough, even, and Yuqi reinforced that notion with her presence. 

"Here, eat up." Yuqi beckoned for Soyeon's attention by holding out a granola bar. They had just finished their last stage for Senorita and Soyeon had decided to head back to her studio—with a sad, forgotten empty stomach. 

"Thanks, Yuqi," Soyeon said with a small smile. "Wait, what's the catch?" 

"What catch? Can't I be a nice person just because?" Yuqi pouted.

Soyeon squinted her eyes skeptically at the younger. She shrugged and unraveled the snack, crinkling the plastic wrapping, and took a bite. 

"So why exactly are we here and not sleeping at the dorm?" Yuqi inquired. 

"I'm here because I want to work, but I don't really know why you're here," Soyeon stated teasingly. 

"Actually...I'm here to convince you to go back to the dorm and rest," Yuqi answered in a slightly sheepish tone. "Lack of sleep will not help you grow, you know? If you're ever going to reach my height, it's best to start sleeping more," Yuqi added jokingly, standing up from her seat on the couch for emphasis. And there was the catch. Soyeon knew there was a catch. 

"Who says I need to be as tall as you?" Soyeon rolled her eyes, well aware that she was far past the point in which puberty would show her mercy and grant her a few more inches.  

Yuqi shrugged indifferently with confidence radiating off her cute, little face. "Because I'm perfect, which means I'm the perfect height too. Who wouldn't want to be as tall as me?" 

"I'm this close to throwing this granola bar in your face," Soyeon threatened, with the fingers of her unoccupied hand set up as if she was about to pinch someone to illustrate her point. Yuqi swore there was only a nanometer of space in between her pointer finger and thumb. Soyeon meant business. And, frankly, Yuqi valued her life, so she pretended to zip her lips with her own thumb and index finger, promising her silence.

However, apparently, she didn't value her life that much because realization soon washed over her—she had completely abandoned her initial mission. She was supposed to convince Soyeon to rest. So, with widened eyes, she broke her short-lived promise by comically ping her sealed lips with the same two fingers. "Wait! Okay, how about we strike a deal. You can work for another hour, but after that, you're taking a break and letting your poor brain sleep." Yuqi held out her hand to initiate the agreement. 

Soyeon played along, deciding that one hour would be enough time anyway, and shook on it. A firm, professional handshake to seal this not-so-professional compromise. 

"Now that that's settled, what's the real reason you're here? You usually don't stay up this late even on days we don't have a schedule," Yuqi questioned gently, her current tone starkly contrasting her prior playfulness. 

"Soojin looked really sad earlier. Didn't you notice? I...I just want to do better," Soyeon confessed, munching on the last remnants of her snack before tossing the wrapper into a nearby trash can. "So she doesn't feel that way again. So none of you feel that way. Ever."

"You don't even know why she was like that though. It could be anything! It could've been Shuhua's dumb saying something stupid again!" Yuqi refuted, poking fun at their dear, dear friend, Yeh Shuhua. 

"Don't be mean to Shuhua."

"Don't be mean to Shuhua," Yuqi mocked in a pitch that was an octave higher than necessary. 

"Yuqi," Soyeon warned with narrowed eyes. 

"Okay, okay. Shuhua's your favorite, we get it. We get it," Yuqi sighed, an evident pout gracing her features in the process. 

"Stop being such a baby," Soyeon said, reaching for her headphones to begin her creative process. 

But just before she could place them over her ears, Yuqi let out another exaggerated sigh. And when Soyeon didn't offer much of a response to her oh-so-dire distress, she let out an even longer, more dramatic sigh. 

"Can you stop? You're going to take up all the oxygen in this small room and kill us both," Soyeon said sarcastically while looking at her tablet that held a compilation of bits and pieces of words and phrases that had the potential to become full-fledged songs someday. Her headphones remained resting beside her, yet to be used because of a certain someone in the room and her incredibly large lung capacity. 

"You didn't even try to correct me when I said that Shuhua was your favorite!" Yuqi exclaimed with frustration written along her furrowed brows. 

"Oh? I thought you were perfect though? Whatever you say must be correct, right? I was just assuming you were correct all the time...Don't tell me you're actually not perfect?" Soyeon feigned shock, placing a hand over . 

"ing hell," Yuqi cursed underneath her breath, rolling her eyes. This was why she did not like fighting with Soyeon. The woman had a particular way of twisting your words so that they worked against you instead of for you and Yuqi rarely found a way out of Soyeon's intellectual chokeholds. Needless to say, this was not one of those rare times. "You know what, nevermind. Go back to your work or whatever. You have forty more minutes before I kick your short out of here," Yuqi concluded while waving her hand dismissively at her opponent as if it could erase the traits of a sore loser as well. 

Soyeon gave her a childish grin in return and looked back toward the tablet, finally placing the headphones over her ears.

And so, she ventured off in her own world.

Well, at least, for a while she did. 

The muffled beats from Soyeon’s headphones echoed throughout the room. The music sharpened her concentration but seemed to have the opposite effect on Yuqi as Soyeon felt a nudge at her forearms that currently rested on her lap supporting her terribly slouched posture as she gazed into the bright screen of her tablet.

Yuqi’s expectant eyes left no room for debate. Soyeon lifted her arms upward to make space for the younger to lay. Her forearms came back down and lightly rested on Yuqi’s upper arm, and she continued to work while Yuqi proceeded to doze off. However, after a couple of more words jotted down, Soyeon found it was increasingly difficult to focus and her verdict was that it was due to the fact that a person was literally on her at the moment. Yuqi just had to be clingy when she was working. How was she supposed to get any work done now? 

Soyeon glanced behind her tablet at Yuqi’s side profile. Her bangs were getting too long again. They were prodding at her eyes. Her eyes still displayed the shimmery makeup of their performance. Her lips were tinted with a subtle coral shade, elegantly contrasting how her mouth was slightly ajar letting out quiet snores and occasional mumbles. Yuqi was completely knocked out. Soyeon concluded that it must’ve been a rough day for her, especially since the younger had decided to tag along with her to their company instead of going back to the dorm to sleep. So, Soyeon reasoned that it was—technically—partly her fault that Yuqi was this tired. Needless to say, she didn't remove Yuqi’s sleeping figure. She couldn't. It wouldn't sit well with her conscience. 

Though Soyeon wasn't one to pick favorites and though her pride wouldn't allow her to admit it in the midst of banter and light-hearted conversation, Soyeon was undeniably biased toward the sleeping girl. It just happened naturally. After all, Yuqi never left her alone, so really, it was inevitable that they would grow closer. And deep down she was relieved that she didn't have to be scared of being lonely. But Yuqi wouldn't hear that from her anytime soon. At least, not in the form of this disgustingly cheesy monologue—perhaps in the form of a couple of light, playful punches. 

Somewhere along the line, while her eyes were wandering along the rises and falls of the younger girl’s features, her eyelids grew heavy. Soyeon fell asleep too, forgetting the sentences that she had intended to note down. It hadn't even reached the full forty minutes. Their compromise laid forgotten along with their sleeping figures amidst the hours that preceded dawn.  

She supposed it must’ve been a rough day for her too.

- - -

Their day-off goes nothing like Shuhua imagines. Shuhua was anticipating the usual easiness to blanket over the group because that was how it usually went. According to her extremely large set of data (the two previous comebacks), the difficult part was over. The consecutive performances and variety shows and fan meetings were over. Now, they only had to tend to their individual commitments which usually gave them all relatively ample time to catch their breath. However, the morning didn't seem to provide her with a breath of fresh air. 

She got up before Soojin. After brushing her teeth, washing her face, and feeding Haku and Mata, she convinced Miyeon to take the two puppies out before heading back to the bedroom to check on Soojin. She may or may not have persuaded Miyeon by saying that this walk could be an opportunity to spend some alone time with Minnie and Miyeon may or may not have agreed a bit too quickly to the chaos that was about to ensue between her and the two puppies who were the most rebellious when in the presence of the eldest member. What could Shuhua say? She had trained them a little too well. Her enemies were now theirs. 

Upon entering the room, she noticed the older girl still hadn’t moved from her position. Shuhua took careful steps over to Soojin’s side of the bed. Her eyes lingered on Soojin’s peaceful expression. Instead of the usual serenity it brought her, she found herself getting increasingly frustrated as she thought about what she had witnessed last night. Frustration slowly turned into anger and anger slowly manifested itself in the form of a tense jaw, furrowed brows, and clenched fists. 

Unbeknown to the Taiwanese girl, Soojin was trying incredibly hard to fall back asleep. In truth, she had woken up a while ago to the exchange of not-so-quiet whispers between the other two members who lived in the same apartment. She supposed she could give them a gold star for trying to suppress the noise they created by “whispering”. But really, Soojin needed to give them some lessons on what would be passable as "whispering". 

Her face was exposed to the streaks of the sunlight that slowly crept into the room. The warmth urging her to get up and make use of a new day. However, she wanted nothing more than to hide underneath the cold darkness of the covers and hibernate. Her lips were chapped and dry. Her eyes were irritated and swollen. Her head was pounding, punishing her for the lack of sleep and the crying-induced dehydration in the form of a painful, unrelenting migraine. In short, she was an absolute mess. An absolute mess that wanted nothing more than to lazy around the entire day. 

Maybe if she continued to close her eyes for a bit longer, she would be able to successfully fall back into a dreamless sleep, aimlessly letting time pass, shutting out all of the physical pain that radiated throughout her body along with all of the mental strain of her responsibilities.

Wishful thinking. Because even with her eyes closed, Soojin could feel Shuhua’s stare. 

"Stop looking at me like that," Soojin said, finally opening her eyes. She her side to meet Shuhua's—accepting the fact that she couldn't avoid the sun rising just as much as she couldn’t avoid Shuhua's gaze.

The younger averted her eyes for a quick second, almost like she was pretending that she wasn't staring at the older girl just a few moments before, and guided her eyes back to Soojin again. "Like what?" Shuhua’s voice was gentle, playful even, masking any traces of anger that had accumulated along with her swirl of thoughts.

"Like I don't look like absolute right now," Soojin clarified, her voice still murky with her longing for sleep.

"You don't," Shuhua stated simply. 

"I definitely look like a wreck," Soojin mumbled.

"You look beautiful," Shuhua corrected.

"Damaged isn't beautiful."

"Stop."

"Stop what?" Soojin asked, more out of childish impulse rather than curiosity. 

"Stop putting yourself down," Shuhua answered sternly.

Soojin ignored the last remark, her mind wandering elsewhere. "He wasn't wrong, you know. I'm basically selling my body for the whole ing world to see," Soojin spoke, voicing her thoughts. She wasn't disgusted with herself, but she wasn't the proudest person on Earth either. The way she saw it, that man provided her with some much-needed emphasis on this part of her job description. A wake-up call, if you will. Perhaps she even owed him a good old-fashioned thank you for the clarity—though, she never wanted to see his face again. " sells. At least I know what I'm doing is working,” Soojin ended, referring back to the incident as if it were something as plain as Mata stealing a few dog treats from Haku. But Shuhua knew better. She didn't just suddenly forget that Soojin had cried herself to sleep yesterday.

"What did he say to you?" Shuhua's tone was audibly louder, deeper. Shuhua could only go so far as to hide her emotions, especially ones that concerned the people she cared most about. 

"He said tha