OMFG

"Why must you always bring up that story?" Sooyoung groaned as she reached for another slice of pizza, trying to ignore the laughter from her two friends sitting around the coffee table with her.

"Because it's hilarious!" Yuri answered, trying to calm herself.

"Really…" Hyoyeon continued, slightly less hysterical, "It's not so much that you lost a hundred sets of fancy lingerie in one day... but that you had that much in the first place!"

"And the fact that you cried about it for three straight days."

The tall girl cringed and rolled her eyes, swallowing her food.

"But still, every concert night? Don't tell me it's become a tradition..." silence fell over them, "... It is a tradition isn't it?"

The other two nodded, and once again Sooyoung sighed.

It was the night of her redemption, or so she saw it; not that she was in any way nervous. But still, she had to put a bit of extra thought into this concert since it was what would decide if she were to stay in the band. As with every concert night that had passed, it would consist of a rather festive preparation dinner at Sooyoung's house, followed by the concert, before returning for a celebratory party afterwards.

However, this was unlike any other preparation they had. Instead of it being just the three of them, there was also Jessica and her group of friends; invited as part of the girl's promise to make Tiffany become friendlier. It was actually going fairly well. On the other side of the room, where it connected to the kitchen, the foursome stood around the room talking in a more serious manner.

"Okay, so is she treating you well?" Tiffany asked.

"I know you don't want me to act out, so before I make any promises I want to make sure I won't have to be mad."

Jessica sighed with a lopsided smile.

"Sooyoung has been very kind over the past couple of months. It took her a long time to warm up to me, but once she did we started becoming good friends." she held up a peaceful expression, though unfortunately her friend was trained to see past it.

"I saw what happened at the Halloween party," she declared bluntly, "I know she hurt you."

"No she didn't..." Jessica looked away.

"Actually it was that night that she was nicest to me... She put up with my lack of restraint despite being clueless in love, and took care of me when I was sick the day after. We've even been training together... We're quite good as friends."

The others could hear the difficulty accepting this in her voice, but in a second the girl regained her composure.

"If you say so..." Tiffany shrugged, worn down enough, "If you're asking me to, then I'll give her another chance. But I'm still not gonna stand by if she does anything wrong again!"

"You should though," Taeyeon interjected, tranquilly acknowledging her wife's shocking displeasure with the statement, "Not to say that I want you hurt, Jessica, but don't you think it would be best for you to work on your relationship with Sooyoung at the pace you know best?"

The girl nodded, still leaving Tiffany to fume a little by herself.

"I appreciate your wish to protect me, but Taeyeon is right... After all, I do have a plan of my own," she waved her hand nonchalantly, turning around to join Sooyoung and the others, "And you know how I am when it comes to plans."

The girl merely chuckled a little at Jessica’s fleeting grin and at Tiffany’s expression of defeat.

"Tch, you always have to disagree with me don't you?" Tiffany grunted, folding her arms across her chest and turning away from Taeyeon.

"I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with you," she placed an arm on her shoulder to gently turn her back around, "Think of it as learning by experience. If you constantly step in to defend Jessica from Sooyoung, you'll end up taking her place in this whole thing; and that's something nobody wants right?"

"I guess you're right... Besides, what good is it gonna do her if I'm the one who knows all about Choi?"

Taeyeon sighed into a smile.

"Yes, exactly..."

That's what I said...

Tiffany looked over to where Jessica was talking with said tall girl and the other duo.

"Well just because I accept her doesn't mean I have to like her whole crowd!" she huffed.

Until then Yoona had been silent; resting her eyes mainly on the floor or her fidgeting hands when she wasn't trying to make eye contact with Yuri. However, this comment definitely caught her attention. She felt a bit cold inside, fear, about what Tiffany was going to say; knowing that she couldn't stop her.

"Now now Tiffany, you know very well that friends come as a part of the deal, after all that's what Jessica is asking of us. Besides Hyoyeon is quite pleasant to talk to and seems to care about Sooyoung in the same way as you care about Jessica."

"Fine, but what about the other one? Have you spoken to her at all?"

By now the brunette's entire focus was on her ears and what she was listening to.

"Actually no." she thought to herself for a moment, about to speak again when she was cut off.

"Exactly! She's impossible to approach! Like she's trying to be—"

"Excuse me..." muttered Yoona before Tiffany could finish, making a quick escape from the conversation.

She couldn't handle with hearing anyone say such things about the girl, especially Tiffany who was always a little too harsh in her choice of words.

"Hey, are you okay?" Tiffany asked, confused, but the girl had already gone.

"What was that about?"

At that same moment, on the other side of the room, Yoona's disappearance didn't go unnoticed by the girl of whom they were speaking. Making a mental note of what direction she headed, Yuri quickly cut into whoever was speaking, saying she was going to get dressed for the concert, and left before waiting for any reply. The three she was standing with thought it odd, but not enough to directly observe where she was going. Instead, it reminded Sooyoung and Hyoyeon that time was catching up with them.

"She's right," the tall girl said, looking at the clock on the wall, "We have to go soon so we should change too."

"I left my stuff in your room," Hyoyeon added, already following Sooyoung there with Jessica last behind them going off to her room further down the hall.

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"So... just between us, how are things really?" Hyoyeon asked, back turned to Sooyoung as they both were changing into their fancier uniform of white blouses with black ties and skirts.

"Fine, why?"

"Just making sure, I worry about you. It's not like you were jumping into this like Jessica was, and last I saw your friendship was on shaky ground... what with the whole "being too nice" thing you were doing."

"We're fine." Sooyoung repeated.

"Why are you so defensive?"

"Huh?" the tall girl turned around, finished dressing, and sat on her bed, "I am?"

"Yeah, did something happen?"

"No... Well... yeah but nothing big. We talked out a lot of things, and I think we're progressing well. She accepts that I see her as a friend, has a bit of a hard time but it's not like I blame her. And I'm fine with the fact that she loves me."

"It doesn't make you uncomfortable?"

"Only in the way that I have to be more careful about what I do and say... but the feelings themselves... it actually makes me happy..." she smiled, cheeks lighting up subtly.

"Oh? Now that I never thought I'd hear from you. I guess you have been making progress," Hyoyeon grinned, facing Sooyoung and then rolling her eyes, "But you still can't do a tie properly..."

"Oh be quiet, it's not like I need to do one any time other than concerts."

Just then there was a knock at the door and upon the automatic "It's open" reply, Jessica came in. Stunning as usual, she even phased the eyes of the two girls, freezing them for a second or so before Hyoyeon smiled and walked out of the room, leaving them to have some time alone before their departure.

Jessica watched with amusement in her eyes as Sooyoung continued to fumble with the piece of fabric around her neck.

"Tch..." the girl grumbled, failing again and then turning to Jessica trying to pass it off as casual, "Could you do it for me?"

The elder girl felt like she had been struck for a split second. Just when she thought she could behave normally, the slightest request would shake her senses from the inside out. All Sooyoung was asking a momentary superficial favor, but everything in Jessica’s mind screamed "opportunity to be close." Gulping down her insecurities, she moved closer, nearly floating on her steps and proceeded to do the proper adjustments.

"Thanks." Sooyoung finally said, sounding like an alarm in the other's mind to remove her lingering hands from the girl's neck.

"How am I coming along with Tiffany?"

"Better than I expected," she answered, relieved to have a subject to change to, "If it's okay with you though I'd like to go to the theatre in their car so I could have more of an opportunity to talk you up."

"Sounds good." Sooyoung opened her viola case.

"You can go wait downstairs, I'll be there in a sec. I just gotta do a final check before I leave."

With a nod, Jessica took her exit and Sooyoung finished looking over her instrument. She smiled proudly. She was happy that she decided to stay. It hadn't really occurred to her yet that it was pretty much all because of Jessica’s encouragement. She was too caught up in the evening.

It was rare that she got a chance to show off her talents with the rest of the orchestra; and while Jessica enjoyed hearing her play on her own, her instrument was certainly one more suited for accompaniment.

It was too somber of a quality unless it was backed up by something else; which made her confidence in her solo all the more important. It had taken some work, but Sooyoung was able to persuade Sunny into letting her have it if she agreed to have the flutes play as well at a lower volume, and as the girl anticipated, it brought a nice uniqueness to the piece.

I'd definitely miss nights like this...

With that, she packed up her things and left the room in a hurry, thinking that she was last. However, when she passed by the bathroom of the hallway she heard a voice behind the closed door.

Yuri...? She's still in there?

"And just... when Tiffany..."

Sooyoung's jaw almost completely fell off when she heard Yoona’s voice. Not only was Yuri still in there talking with someone, but of all people the shy little girl who was always trailing along with Jessica and her friends? Needless to say, the tall girl couldn't refrain from eavesdropping this time. It was her best friend after all, and what she continued to hear only enticed her to keep listening.

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"Just don't listen to her;" spoke the black pearl as she took the brunette's hands in hers, but she laughed somewhat.

"I'm not really her type. I know you didn't wanna stick around and listen, but she probably just said I would be a bad influence on anyone. On Sooyoung, and therefore Jessica, that's all. I don't make a very good first impression."

"You did with me..."

Yuri giggled at that, thinking she had made a complete fool of herself the first time they met.

"But even if you did give her a bad first impression," Yoona looked down shyly, "She doesn't know that you're so much more than that."

"And she doesn't have to. She isn't the one I'm dating."

There was a moment of silence.

"We are right?"

"Yes! Of course!" Yoona stammered, turning her face up quickly.

"Ah, good." Yuri smiled, "I was a bit worried when you cancelled on me... I thought you were maybe having second thoughts all of a sudden."

"Not at all! I'm sorry... My parents said that they wanted to meet with me and I tried to get out of it but—" she stopped when she felt a finger on her lips.

"You don't have to explain. I know that you have a difficult relationship with your parents... and it was probably best that you went to have dinner with them instead of telling them you had plans with me."

She laughed.

"Now there're some people who wouldn't approve. Tiffany’s one thing, but your parents... wow... at least from what you've told me they would probably hate it."

"But like you said, no one else has to know..."

They both nodded and Yuri looked up in thought.

"Funny... we've been going out with each other for almost a month now and they haven't noticed." she chuckled.

"... Do you think we should tell them?"

"Well, it's up to you. I'm fine with keeping it a secret." she smiled mischievously.

"In fact I do kinda like it being hidden... But if you need to tell someone I won't mind. Just let me know so that if they ask I won't end up lying."

"Mmhmm... Mm." she hummed as she was be