Darkness. A hazy mist of darkness and serenity. Whatever was beyond the mist, could only be guessed. Fragments of memories, existent and fictional. Desires and hopes for the future. The greatest fears and agony. Dreams and future goals. And a lot more. It was supposed to be silent in the darkness. While the vision was dark however, distant whispers reached the ears. Eerie breezes crept up the skin, spreading icy tingles all over, joined by a haze of disorganised sounds. Another breeze passed and instantly everything fell silent.

The sounds had died down, until only one single clear voice started to boom through the darkness, clearing the mist away, along with whatever was beyond. The voice started as a distant call, growing more vivid with every second passing and every inaudible word spoken. Soon enough the words could be recognised. It was a single word, getting repeated over and over again by the same voice. A familiar voice.

And the light slowly returned.

“-oon-ah.”

“-ejoon-ah.”

“Hyejoon-ah.”

“Hyejoon-ah!”

“Kim Hyejoon, wake up already.”

Her eyes opened, allowing the stinging light to pierce through. Immediately regretting the choice, the dark haired blinked several times in an attempt to soothe them. It worked, but the result wasn’t as effective as she wished it was. With her eyes slightly watery, Hyejoon’s sight sharpened. The first thing she saw, was a white shirt and trailing her eyes upward she found a face staring down at her, with a concerned expression.

“Yah.” She heard his voice again, already taking note of the scolding tone. “You fell asleep on the table again.”

The girl’s response was a low growl, expressing her morning humor. What he and everyone else who had seen her wake up knew, was that Hyejoon was definitely not a morning person. There were two occasions of biting someone, both were her younger sisters. After that incident, both either used a ruler to stay out of her reach or were replaced by their mother to wake up the devil, that was their sister in the mornings, instead.

Hyejoon gathered the strength to lift her head and look around. She found her laptop in front of her. It was closed and the lights weren’t blinking either, which meant that at some point she had turned it off last night. The table’s surface wasn’t visible due to the storm of papers and books the girl had scattered around. Deadline’s were near and this had been the young college students’ several all nighter.

“I have a schedule, so I have to go. Either go to bed, or wake up. Sleeping like that is bad for your neck.” The male continued his scolding. “It’s not the first time you hear me say this.”

The words echoed through the girl’s skull as she felt her temples pounding harshly. Squinting her eyes and turning her head to look at her side, she noticed that he had moved from his spot beside her, to wander around and gather his belongings. Hyejoon lifted both hands to rub her eyes, emitting another groan in the process. After that, a yawn followed. Before she could initiate one, the yawn was replaced with a wince and a hitched breath at the penetrating jolt that ran through the muscles in her neck all the way to the top of her head.

“I told you,” She heard the male speak again. “You’re too careless.”

“I get it!” Hyejoon called out, wincing at how loud her own voice was and the pain it caused.

“I don’t think you do, Kim Hyejoon.”

“Aren’t you late?” Hyejoon inquired, hoping to see him run out of the door and leaving her to retreat under her covers.

The curse coming from the man’s lips proved she was right and as expected, he ran around the house grabbing his bag and blazer before dashing through the door.

“Phone.” Hyejoon pointed out and watched the man return and collect the device along with the charger. “Keys.” She continued and that too was collected. “Wallet?”

“I have that one, thank you very much.” was the man’s sarcastic response. “See you in the evening. Be sure to eat.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll eat after I sleep.” Hyejoon ensured, followed by a successful yawn this time.

“Typical.” The man sighed as he tied the last shoe. “Take care.”

Upon the closing of the door, Hyejoon pondered on whether to rest her head on the table again or pick herself up and move to her bedroom. A little turn of her neck sent another painful jolt through her muscles and forced the second choice upon her. He was right, she was going to kill herself with this carelessness one day. So pushing herself up, Hyejoon stumbled into her bedroom and let herself fall onto her bed. With some squirming, turning and twisting she managed to lie under her covers and closed her eyes one more time.

It was hours later that she woke up again, only to be greeted with the sun already falling to the west. Realising that it was probably late afternoon, Hyejoon pried herself up and lazily began her morning routine. The only difference is that it was 4 PM, judging from the position of the clock’s hands, instead. With her toothbrush still in the girl made her way into the kitchen, where she tucked two pieces of bread into the toaster and pressed the few buttons on the device that would brew her a delicious cup of coffee.

Once Hyejoon was fully dressed and ready to consume her breakfast, the girl stood frozen with mouth agape at the mess that was the dinner table. Somewhere she vaguely remembered not caring about her papers, books and whatever else was piled up onto the mountain of English literature and assignments when she had moved to bed this morning. With a reluctant sigh the girl placed her mug back onto the kitchen counter and started organising the piles neatly to make space for her well deserved, late afternoon breakfast.

With the piles aside and her breakfast on the table, Hyejoon contently consumed her meal, while glaring at her work from time to time. There was nothing more awful, than knowing you had to spend the rest of the day, glueing your eyes on the laptop screen and with your nose in the books, while instead you could be marathoning movies or series or even using a game console for some venting and stress relief. But faith had something else planned for Kim Hyejoon them being her assignments.

However assignments were the last thing she could think about right now. Giving the pile a last glare, Hyejoon took the last sip of her coffee and shot up from her seat. After washing her plate and mug, the dark haired moved to the couch in the living room facing the tv. Somehow she had summoned a controller in her hands, the playstation and even flipped in a disk, before making herself comfortable on the couch to slay some demons and save a tacky princess from her doom.

About an hour and a half was spent like that. A wide range of colourful vocabulary was used to express every emotion, success and failure as she furiously drummed down the buttons of the controllers and move the stick. With her lips pressed tightly together Hyejoon fiercely glared at her opponent on the large television. Suddenly the girl burst out in a shout of excitement and victory. Her opponent fell to the ground and remained unmoving. After her short celebration and tucking a cookie in , the girl continued the game coming across another stubborn opponent.

Just when she struck a good blow, the gamer heard the familiar tune coming from her phone. The girl let out a groan upon seeing her own character being hurt. Her eyes fired up and she started tapping the device in her hands furiously again. The ringing that reached her ears however, distracted her and made her unable to maintain full concentration. With a curse she tucked the phone in between her ear and shoulder after sliding across the screen to pick up in a simple blur of movements.

“Yes?” Hyejoon blurted while concentrating on delivering another blow.

“Hyejoon-ah!” a female voice on the other line shouted. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” the girl responded absentmindedly. “You?”

“Well, everyone is gathering up later. Have any plans?” Hyejoon heard through the phone, only percepting half.

“Uhu.”

“Okay. But you can come too if you want too. We’re going for chicken.” the voice continued.

“Uhu.”

“So let’s meet up at the usual place!”

“Uhu.”

“You have bean paste leaking from your ears and nose and it’s disgusting.”

“Uhu…. wait what?” Hyejoon finally realised.

“You’re on the playstation aren’t you?” her friend asked knowingly.

“No, Kim Baeri, I am simply beating these s and the princess will be saved as a bonus. It’s simple really.” Hyejoon explained in her lecturing tone. At the end she burst into an excited series of shouts and curses at her victory.

“Get your to the KFC, Hyejoon or we’re kicking you out. 5 sharp.”

With that the conversation was cut short and Hyejoon’s phone fell dead, leaving the girl to emit a sigh when she saved the game. Although a little sad to turn off the Playstation, Hyejoon was glad she found something else to occupy herself. Above all, it’s been a while since she had seen her friends. The dark haired proceeded to change once again and even moved her laptop and piles to her bedroom. She grabbed her bag, pulled a beanie over her head and fixed her fringe to leave the house. Before she closed the door however, Hyejoon stormed back in and grabbed two more items, while cursing out loud.

“And to think I made fun of Oppa because of these.” She muttered to herself.

Just as promised Hyejoon arrived at the KFC at 5 PM. Only it wasn’t sharp since she was about 10 minutes later. Once the promised place was within eyesight, Hyejoon could see the group she had promised to meet already rowdy amongst themselves. The girl could hear them laugh even from that distance. Somehow these people, no matter how strange they were, always made her day. Even though she was probably not the most sane person in the world, Hyejoon liked to think of herself as a level less ‘insane’ than her friends.

“There’s the maknae!” Hyejoon heard the tallest among the three, with a mane of curls framing her face, say.

“Hyejoon-ah! I see your love us more than you are lazy!” The shortest among the three shouted with her trademark grin.

“Shut up, Kim Baeri! I came for the chicken.” Hyejoon spoke with a pretense scowl.

The three stared at her with the red haired uttering a low, but sturdy “Well then.”

Hyejoon’s expression turned into a smile and the girl hugged the three one by one. “Hi guys.”

“She loves us!” The tallest exclaimed again, poking the girl’s upper arm.

“Stop touching me, Chaima!” Hyejoon exclaimed dramatically, but sending the girl a smile.

“Stop being so gay and let’s go in. I’m hungry!” the redhead complained, as she turned around.

“Agreed with Shindae. I want chicken wings and I want them now!” Baeri confirmed as she too passed through the sliding doors.

Once they ordered and were seated with their food and drinks, the chatter continued. Of course they did not forget to devour the wings and fries in the process. Stealing a wing from each other and stealing wings back, despite sharing two buckets amongst the four, happened occasionally as well. It also started a play fight between Chaima and Baeri, who in turn also stole fries from each other. There was no better way to explain the situation as total chaos. No one would have guessed that these girls all attended college or had a full time job.

“So.” Shindae spoke when a short silence fell, her eyes focussing on the youngest while taking a wing in . “How’s life with the roommate? Adjusted already?”

“Well… a few months have passed, so I am used to it, yes.” Hyejoon responded after swallowing the contents of . “Although living with a famous person can be a drag.”

Baeri didn’t miss the sigh that puffed from between her lips. “It’s Yoon Doojoon, though. It can’t be that bad. He’s really nice after all.”

Hyejoon shrugged as her lips left her straw, from taking a sip of her drink and responded. “Don’t get me wrong. Oppa is really nice and respects privacy, but there are some messed up people out there.”

“Agreed.” Chaima spoke, nodding her head knowingly. “Look, I’m a fan too, but facing a mob directly is a real trauma to deal with.”

Hyejoon nodded, remembering the time Chaima told her about visiting her neighbour at the hospital and about the famous son, Shinee’s leader Onew. There was no doubt that this girl had experienced some scary things. Things she’d like to avoid as much as possible. And although the B2ST fandom wasn’t as crazy as the Shinee fandom, there was no guarantee of her safety after people find out she lives with the boyfriend-dol, as people liked to call him, Yoon Doojoon.

Their dinner date ended soon, after Baeri announced she had to teach dance classes to Cube trainee’s in a few hours. The group left the fast food restaurant together and waved off their friend. Kim Baeri had quite a curious past. Lee Gikwang, her roommate’s group member, was her childhood friend. They were as close, maybe even closer, than the group of girls to the point of calling each other best friends. Through Gikwang, or rather Yoseob, she had the luck of gaining opportunities after meeting him after several years. The girl was able to pick up her dream, dancing for a living. Although she was mostly a teacher and sometimes a back up dancer.

Shindae announced her leave due to a date with her boyfriend right after Baeri and bid her farewell before jumping onto a bus. That left Hyejoon and Chaima to themselves. They continued their chatting, while heading to the taller girl’s car and picking up some bubble tea on the way, because Chaima insisted on a desert and it didn’t matter if it were a drink. Hyejoon complied, with the last bit of money she had set aside for herself to spend that day.

“So I’m about to go and pick up my sister from the airport. Want me to drop you off?” Chaima asked beaming at the girl.

“That’d be awesome, thanks.” Hyejoon replied, returning the smile and getting into the car.

She couldn’t help but notice Chaima’s excitement and giddy giggling, obviously happy to see her sister again, after moving from her home country to here by herself.

“When does the plane land?” Hyejoon asked as she pressed the buttons on the radio, in an attempt to get some sound to be produced.

“In an hour and a half. So if I leave in a bit, I’ll catch her when she leaves the gates.” The girl ended with a giggle.

The rest of the ride continued in a similar manner, with Chaima being smiley and giggly and Hyejoon letting her own mood being positively affected by it. She had completely forgotten about her headache and even her strange daily routine seemed to have no effect on her body any longer. The girl stood in front of her apartment complex as she waved at her friend through the window of her car.

“Say hi to Saenan for me.”

“Oh I will. Let’s meet up as soon as that weakling is over her jet lag okay?” the curly haired suggested and Hyejoon agreed.

Once in front of her door Hyejoon fished the keys from her pocket to open the door and enter it. The headache she had forgotten had returned by a bit, she noticed. There was a slight pressure on the top of her head and the bridge of her nose felt like it was bruised. Her smile faltered as she forced the door to open with a soft kick and took off her shoes. Just as she threw the door back to close with her elbow, a muffled ‘hey’ reached her ears.

“Thanks Hyejoon-ah. A door to the face was just what I needed.” the familiar voice caused her to turn around.

“Doojoon Oppa?” She questioned, slightly bewildered. “Sorry.”

Seeing the goofy apologetic grin on her face, Doojoon let out a sigh and poked the girl’s forehead, noticing the bangs that had grown long enough to cover her eyes almost completely. Unknowingly he swept them slightly to the side and Hyejoon automatically backed away slightly, making sure she was out of reach and he stood to the far end of the hall, still wearing her shoes. When he realised this, the man smiled.

“Well look who’s awake!” Doojoon teased and continued, “It’s okay.” he had assured her.

“You were too silent, I didn’t even hear you walking.” Hyejoon spoke, lifting an eyebrow.

“Well, maybe because you were dozing off.”

Hyejoon didn’t get the chance to retort as he walked past her to the living room. Slightly dumbfounded, she followed, but headed to her room immediately after. Changing into her comfortable sweatpants, t-shirt and hoodie. While walking over to the couch, where Doojoon busied himself with his phone and the tv, Hyejoon pulled her hair into a bun, before dropping on the other side. She remembered her work and swung back to her room and returned this time, with her laptop. Doojoon had watched it, finding amusement in even the smallest things the girl did.

“Did you eat Oppa?” Hyejoon asked, knowing very well that Doojoon would forget everything on a day that was packed with schedules.

“Yeah, lunch.” He responded as he was typing furiously on his Samsung phone.

With one glance Hyejoon found out he was actually playing bubble trouble and stole the device from his hands. “What about dinner?”

“Yah! Kim Hyejoon! I was about to reach a highscore.”

Both stared at each other as it slowly molded into a scowl. Stubborn to the core, neither spoke a word or even looked away…

I wonder for how long.