“I'm sorry, we couldn’t be there tonight” Yena was standing backstage of the auditorium in a simple blue dress with a light coat on top. She was in the middle of a video call with Yuri and her parents.

“It’s okay. Although... it would have been nice to have been added to the reservation as well.” The girl playfully pouted to Mrs. Jo.

“We’ll treat you, Hyewon, Chaeyeon, and Minju somewhere nice before we head back. You look like you lost a lot of weight since we last saw you.” Mrs. Jo looked at Yena displeased with her almost barebone frame. It occurred to Yena recently that she has lost a lot of weight in the past few weeks. Furthermore, she was having difficulty sleeping at night as well.

“Don’t let college stress you out too much, you didn’t beat that lymphoma cancer only to overstress while studying.” Mrs. Jo added with a concerned tone.

“MOM!” Yuri could be heard from the corner of her screen. Her mother only returned a half sorry look.

“We also brought a present this time.” Yuri abruptly moved to the camera to her dad heartily waving from his seat.

“That’s a promise right?” Yena smirked enthusiastically. 

“Okay, we gotta go now.” Yuri turned the camera onto herself. “Good luck, don’t stare at Chaewon and forget your lyrics. You’re gonna kill it.” She reassured Yena with a thumbs up.

“Enjoy your dinner. I’ll call you again later tonight.” She smiled back as she waved Yuri and her parent's goodbye. She hung up and placed her phone inside her coat pocket. The nerves of performing in front of a crowd of hundreds were making her stomach turn and she regretted eating hastily earlier. Yena’s habit of fiddling with her fingers kicked in as she looked around anxiously at all the other singers getting ready around her.

“Behind you princess.” Yena almost had to wipe off her drool when she faced the right direction.

Before her stood the red-haired beauty with a flowing mint green dress that looked more expensive than her whole semester tuition. Yena took into special attention the way her long collar bones looked on top of her milky skin.

“My eyes are up here” Chaewon tilted her head so she could make eye contact with Yena.

“You look gorgeous” Yena impulsively admitted. 

“I should be the one to say that.” If Yena wasn’t fiddling with her hand enough before, she sure was now. “I almost didn’t recognize you from afar, that dress makes you look suave.”

“It’s actually Minju’s, she let me borrow it. I never wear dresses.” Yena felt tense and awkward in her attire.

“Didn’t you goto any highschool formals or anything?” Chaewon raised her eyebrows. Yena only shook her head no.

“Never been to an amusement park or to highschool formals. Did your parents rob you of your childhood or something?” Chaewon threw out sarcastically but she was sincerely curious about Yena’s past. Maybe she should try texting Hyewon. 

“Wel-”

“Curtain call, Choi Yena, and Kim Chaewon. You’re up in five minutes.” An assisting director called from a distance.

“Tell me what you were going to say after our performance.” Chaewon smiled at the girl. “Even though I’ve sung in front of crowds like this all the time and my popularity from my youtube channel, I can’t help but feel a bit shaky.” She admitted to Yena as they walked up.

“Same, actually.” Yena was holding onto the edge of her dress tightly as they moved closer.

“You do seem a bit pale. Are you getting sick or anything?” Yena darted her eyes side to side as if she was doing a self-diagnostic on her body. “On that note, you look like you lost weight too! You already looked like sticks and bones before. I’ll tell Mina and Nayeon unnie to treat us to lunch some time.” 

“I’m not too sure, but I’d love to go on a lunch date with them.” Yena was puzzled as to why, but she knew her heart was racing faster than a v5 engine and she could feel the sweat precipitating on her palms even in the near-freezing night temperature.

“One minute.” The assistant director pointed at them while holding his overhead mic.

“Ducky.” Yena looked to her side after receiving a microphone from another assistant.

“Let’s meet at the Ferris wheel in an hour at 9:30.” 

“The..the Ferris wheel?” Yena stuttered.

“To be honest, Eunbi unnie told me to meet her there but I want to ride it with you.” Chaewon seized Yena’s sweaty hand. Yena’s head felt even lighter.

They both made eye contact momentarily. Yena was too frozen to register how deep Chaewon was staring into her eyes. She could have stood there holding Chaewon’s hand for hours until she saw the girl furrowed her eyebrows and press a hand against her forehead.

“Are you sure you’re not sick?” Chaewon pressed the palm of her hand into Yena’s cheek. The warmth radiated through her body and caused her to shiver. “I think it might just be stage fright,” Yena reassured, hesitantly. 

“You guys are up.” The assistant director pointed to an opening of the stage guided by a giant yellow spotlight. 

“Let’s do this.” Chaewon looked at Yena who nodded in response.

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“Sit down Nayeon you’re embarrassing us.” Chaeyoung was covering her face in embarrassment from Nayeon cheering “I love you Yena” from the top of her lungs.

“They were really good, I didn’t know Yena could sing like that.” Jeongyeon sat flabbergasted.

Minju frantically approached the girls. “Hey, have you guys seen Hyewon? She’s supposed to be backstage helping!” 

“She's busy.” Nayeon winked, which only made the red-haired Minju even more confused.

“Take a look.” Jihyo took out her phone to show Minju a picture of Tzuyu and Hyewon holding hands together.

“She ditched her job for Sakura!” Minju was infuriated. “Wait..that’s Tzuyu. She’s with Tzuyu!?” Hey, eyes bulged out like a frog. 

“We can’t believe it either.” Jihyo shrugged.

“What do I do now? We need someone to help carry the set-pieces” Minju sounded defeated.

“I’ll help” Yujin stood up coolly.

“My you’ll help.” Jeongyeon scoffed under her breath.

“You sure?” Minju felt apologetic to the high schooler. Yujin nodded while making her way to the end of the row of chairs.

“We should probably follow.” Chaeyeon and Momo got up as they also had a dance performance to prepare for.

“Minju, can you let Nayeon and I use the bathroom backstage? Nayeon refuses to use the porta-potties.”

“Oh, I can give Yena and Chaewon these flowers we brought too!” Nayeon exclaimed.

“Why not, let's hurry before the next stage starts.” she ushered for the girls to quickly get up.

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Backstage

“You were amazing Yena.” Chaewon said in between gasps of air. She took a sip from a water bottle that was given to her by an assistant.

“I think all the lights gave me a headache though” Yena took a moment to sit down on a chair while also panting.

Chaewon walked up to the girl and sat next to her “Hey, are you sure you’re ok? During the stage, I couldn’t tell if you were moments from fainting or if you were just really entranced.” 

Yena tried to hide it as best as she could but the moment she started singing felt like it was being squeezed by a boa constrictor. It was suffocating to continue to perform but she fought through it not wanting to disappoint Mina and the rest in the crowd. 

“Maybe