“I don’t know whether or not to be jealous or annoyed by their popularity,” Minah hears Yura mutter bitterly, crossing her arms as the other gazes at the television screen of the live performance. “They’re only doing part of it, most of it has been recording,” she continues to mutter and Minah couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“At least our fans are not as crazy?” She tries to comfort elder, but the other doesn’t really hear it as she continues to glare at the television screen, her guard down considering they were the only ones in the room. 

Feeling slightly parched, she tells Yura that she was going to get a bottle of water, to which she responds to bring her a bottle as well. Her stage out fit was completely covered with a puffy jacket, the whether is still chilly and it seems the company has no intentions of turning the heat up. Though, that’s fine. She didn’t want her make up to melt off. Holding two water bottles, she was on her way back to her dressing room when she notices that EXO’s own was a bit open and she wonders if someone had wandered inside.

Usually, no one leaves the dressing room just in case some sasaeng fans decide to barge and steal their stuff, but there are times people are forgetful. So, Minah slowly opens the door to peek inside, keeping her body out in case she’ll need to scream for the security guards to come in and take some psycho fans away.

Her eyes roam around the room, seeing that someone was occupying the room. “Ah, sorry!” She says with a laugh, bowing her head shyly. “I was just checking if someone had barged in, sorry about that Tao-sshi!” 

Tao only shakes his head, “no, it’s okay,” smiling politely at her as he returns the bow, albeit a bit awkwardly considering he was sitting down with one leg stretched out on the table, his ankled wrapped in bandages. Surprised to see his condition, she looks back at the television screen to see that he was indeed not present with the rest of his group.

“I didn’t know you were injured…” she says, taking a step in, hesitating a bit as she gazes at him questionably if it was alright for her to enter. He scoots over from the couch, indicating that it was indeed alright and she could get comfortable.

“Yeah, I injured it during idol championships,” he mentions smiling sheepishly at her.

Though she knows it’s probably a bad idea for her to be here for multiple reasons (his fans and her own making assumptions of their nonexistent relationship passed fellow idols, Yura is waiting for her water, and both of them getting scolded by their managers) she takes the risk anyway, closing the door and taking a seat beside him, setting the cool water down on the coffee table.

“But that was back in February, shouldn’t it be better by now? I thought it was just a sprain.” Minah she questions him, and he sighs shaking his head.

“Because of schedules, it couldn’t heal properly. Now, I can’t perform,” he gazes at the television screen on the wall, arms crossed as he rests his back against the couch again. Minah presses her lips together, in a way, she could almost relate.

When she hurt her leg, she felt terrible she couldn’t perform properly with the rest of her band members. Although, unlike Tao’s group, their performance for Darling wasn’t as intricate as his groups, that multiple props were even used to perform. She was still able to come on stage, do a few of the dances hand movements and sing. However, she remembers feeling the embarrassment of being unable to perform as properly as she had wanted to. Being on the stage, sitting down felt nothing short of awkward.

Watching EXO’s performance, she presses her lips together, then looks back at him. His sharp dark eyes were focused on the performance when he finally turns back to her, only to see her giving a disgusting display of aegyo to him. Her lips were pouted, matching the slightly slanted look of her eye make up. Both her hands were brought up close to her face, shoulder hunched up as she turns her body slightly from side to side.

“Oppa~ You should be cheering them on~!” She says in a higher pitched voice, along with a bit of tone of baby talk. With one hand she gently hits his arms, “c’mon oppa~ Cheer with me! E-X-O! E-X-O!” At this display, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing, grinning from ear to ear as he watches her.

But that wouldn’t cut it for her, she nudges his arm, waving her hand down like the fangirls doing the chants as they performed. “Do it oppa! E-X-O! E-X-O!”

Weakly, he starts to copy her, sitting up properly so it didn’t feel too awkward.

“With more spirit!” 

“E-X-O, E-X-O.”

“Louder!”

“E-X-O! E-X-O!”

“What are you guys doing?” Surprised, they both bring their attention to the entrance of the room to see his bandmates staring at the two of them with incredulous and tired looks. Minah’s cheeks began to feel warm and her neck was burning and part of her was worried now that some of her make up will melt off. Especially when she sees the grin on the tallest member’s face as they all start to walk in, someone grabbing the water bottle from the table. Before he could say anything, a woman rushes by the room, only to come right back, head turned to look right at her and yell, “Minah! You’re next! What are you doing here!?” Surprised, Minah pulls out her phone with a yelp, standing up quickly, and having to accidentally grab onto someone to stop herself from falling over.

“I’m sorry! I’m coming!” She yells, walking as quickly as she could in her heels, stopping by the door for a moment to bow politely at the boys, and then again more directed towards Tao. “Feel better, Tao-sshi!” And then starts following the staff member to the stage, the people around in a rush to get her specific stage prepared.

As she walked, she could feel herself growing nervous once again, more panicked even. The people around her were walking fast, almost bumping into her as they tried to get to their specific destinations. She was taking off the puffy jacket, someone takes it from her and the next thing she knows, she’s on stage, already out of breath.

Waiting impatiently, surrounded by darkness, leaning against her dance partner as she was breathing heavily. What if she couldn’t sing properly because she was so out of breath? She was supposed to sing live, and now she’s going to sound breathy? The fans are going to notice. Just as her mind was in chaos, the first beat of a sharp drum and cymbal, suddenly, her mind was calm.

She was back in the mindset of her onstage persona of a broken hearted woman, and her performance once again had the cloud cheering as she hit her high notes, never sounding off, despite constantly moving around the stage. 

And she noticed, nowhere in the cloud, but in a spot, where no one could see him, was a man in crutches, his dark eyes focused on her with a smile.

This was a song of a broken hearted woman, and it was so difficult not to smile back at him.