"KYUNGMI! You know you shouldn't be smoking, you're ruining your lungs and your body. Really you should stop smoking." A familiar voice called, walking leisurely down the street where she could see her best friend smoking out front of the café she worked in, having just finished her shift.

It was pretty dark out, the sun having just set in the west, the remaining light of the fireball lighting up the sky in brilliant colours that were only blurred by the slight greyness of air pollution. And though it had been a sunny day, it was still far too cold to go outside without a warm jacket and thick clothing.

"Ah... Inhyo. You know I'll stop when I want to, sheesh. You're like my eomeoni." Kyungmi frowned, looking over to Inhyo who was now only a few feet away. "Work's finished. If its any consolation to you." She filled in awkwardly, trying to fill in the silence between them as she finished her cigarette.

"Yah! I know that. I've come to talk. Training is..." Inhyo muttered the last but, shoving her hands into her pockets, unable to find the words from what she felt about training.

"A ?" Kyungmi finished for her, an eyebrow raised and a cheeky smirk on her lips. Inhyo's smile widened until she was grinning at the girl in front of her.

"Something like that; the instructors are getting harsher, like what crawled up their asses and died? Even to the favourites of the class that never usually get scolded, you can tell that even they are getting frustrated." She snickered rolling her eyes, used to their behaviour having endured it for five years. She could remember the vivid memory of Hyunmi, the female dance teacher, who had being telling off anyone who had their foot off by a single degree.

"Probably because of all the that went down this year; what's his name is probably nailing them to make sure it doesn't happen again." Kyungmi shrugged, disposing of the of her cigarette and then starting to walk back down the sidewalk slowly towards her apartment, Inhyo walking next to her dodging the occasional passerby.

"They piss me off... It's not like the training schedules aren't hard enough that I couldn't even imagine the schedule of a popular idol; I don't think it'll get better when I debut. But it's SM; slave contracts are probably still a thing." Inhyo muttered, staring up into the sky.

Chatting to Kyungmi was always relieving, particularly when it meant openly critising SM, even if it was her own company.

"The whole fuss in the media gets to me. Why worry about someone else's business? I have my own problems." She waved it off, looking to the side at Inhyo, rubbing her hands together from the cold, their faces illuminated by the moon and unnatural light of the city.

"Hypocrite. You love knowing all about everyone else's business." Inhyo snickered, nudging Kyungmi who just grinned wickedly. The cold air seemed warmer with company, even if that company was a notorious gossiper that you wouldn't trust your darkest secrets to.

"You caught me." She said slyly, putting her hands to the air. "But you know what?"

"What?"

"That girl I was talking about the other day? The one who came in with that boy latched on her arm. Well anyway apparently that's her fiancé, but the weird thing is you know, she's eighteen. So we were thinking teen pregnancy..." Kyungmi said excitedly, launching into the story that she'd no doubly heard from three other staff members at the café.

It was something that made Inhyo want to smile, though whatever Kyungmi was talking about is usally boring and concerned with other people's lives, people she didn't know nor had interacted with. 

'Sorry, sorry, sor-' 

Her phone was ringing, again for the twelfth time today, and just when she'd found a peaceful moment.

"Sorry have to answer this. Wait here and don't move." Inhyo ordered, looking at the caller ID that only stated it was from the office department of SM. "Yeoboseyo? This is Yoo Inhyo imnida." She answered, waiting for a reply.

"Inhyo, Kim Youngmin wishes to see you right now. If you could head straight back to the office now. We'll have a car to your location." A deep male's voice spoke quickly, informing her of what she was just wondering about.

"Of course." Inhyo agreed, informing the man of her location and hanging up and turing back to the other woman whom was lighting another smoke. "Yah! Kyungmi! How many times do I have to warn you of the dangers of smoking and ask you to give up. Quit now!" She demanded, crossing her arms and staring at her friend. "Or at least don't do it in public. Its unsavoury."

"Nope. So I'll tell you this again. I am not givng up because I do as I want. Now shush." Kyungmi said, taking a long drag of the cigarette, not bothering about how Inhyo scrunched up her nose in distaste, waving a hand to blow the smoke away from her. "Now who was that?" She questioned, breathing out a cloud of smoke.

"A manager. I have a meeting with Kim Youngmin now and they are coming to collect me here." Inhyo told Kyungmi, waving her hand in the air to make sure she wasn't breathing too much smoke in. "So much for just going back to your apartment and watching anime." She sighed.

"Yeah your work . At least you have a shift at the café tomorrow so we can talk more." Kyungmi shrugged, still smoking the shortened cigarette, not caring about the unapproving glances from Inhyo or other passerbys.

They stood in an almost silence, occasionally talking about plans to go out until the van arrived shortly after, the distance from here to the offices was not long, particularly when you were driving even in traffic, however much longer if you were to walk. Inhyo got in; saying her goodbyes for now, not questioning why she was seeing her sajangnim at night in a December, though proabably not for an early Christmas gift.

Congratulations again to our dear Chakayuko for creating our wonderful Dragon Leader Yoo Inhyo.