The entrance to Seoul Olympic Hall looked like it was about to burst with the number concert goers, feeding the growing excitement in the air. Sunny was glad that IU had given them all access passes that allowed them to skip the long lines earlier on, although she had felt a little guilty walking past the lines of fans who had been queueing the whole day. An attendant ushered them to their seats in the west wing of the concert hall and saw it wasn’t only her who was impressed with how the place had been decorated for their hoobae’s concert. Banners with blown up images from IU’s latest album cover were draped all around with the spotlights bouncing off them. Sooyoung and Hyoyeon had bought IU light sticks earlier on and were waving them around like chodings. Sunny chuckled at the pair of them when Hyoyeon used hers to knock Taeyeon’s head in front of them and blame Sooyoung for it, enjoying the sight of Taeyeon attempting to climb over her seat to knock Sooyoung’s lights out while a laughing Tiffany was holding her back by her collar.

“Sooyoung, I’m starving. Let’s go get something to eat before the concert starts!” whined Yoona who was seated next to Tiffany. Agreeing immediately to any excuse to get away from an angry Taeyeon, the pair of shikshins ran back up the stairs they had come from earlier. Sunny looked around as the other seats around the concert hall was being quickly filled. Tiny lights from the sticks filled the hall like stars in the night sky as the buzz of excitement rose.

—————

“Hurry up guys! We’re gonna miss the start!” a frustrated Eunjung yelled at the girls who were quite a way behind her. “Yah Jungie! My short legs is not exactly helping me keep up with your long ones,” Boram whined, clearly out of breath as she struggled to keep up with her tall friend. “Here, hold my hand baby,” Soyeon offered to her short girlfriend, who gladly accepted her help. Hyomin who had already walked ahead of them, stopped in her tracks and turned to wait for her two friends. “Jungie, go on ahead with Qri and Jiyeon. I’ll wait with them until Boram unnie catches her breath. We’re seated in the eastern section, right?” said Hyomin. Eunjung nodded, “You sure Minnie? We don’t mind waiting with you guys,” said Eunjung looking at an out breath Boram with concern. Hyomin assured Eunjung they’d be fine and waved to the three to go on ahead. Eunjung nodded and proceeded to walk ahead with Qri and their maknae.

“Sorry Hyomin-ah. I’m not in very good health these days,” said Boram guiltily. Hyomin turned to her unnies and flashed a bright smile. “No problem unnie. Besides, it’ll be some time before the concert starts,” said Hyomin as she checked the time on her watch. Soyeon pointed to a nearby bench and lead her girlfriend to take a seat on it while she caught her breath. “Does Boram unnie always lose her breath this easily?” asked Hyomin watching Boram take a long gulp of water from the bottle she had brought. Soyeon nodded, “She’s been a little fragile since she was young. She eats healthily but since she’s got a pretty high metabolism, she has to eat constantly to avoid collapsing. Her sister, Wooram, calls me pretty often to check on her unnie’s wellbeing.” Hyomin nodded, already feeling worried for her small friend. She wondered whether it was because of Boram’s size but dismissed the thought as she remembered that the petite Sunny’s arms had felt pretty strong when she broke Hyomin’s fall.

“I’m fine now. Sorry for the hold up, let’s go in,” said Boram with a tired smile. Soyeon helped her girlfriend stand and Hyomin insisted on carrying Boram’s backpack to ease some of the weight off her friend despite her friend’s protest. The trio made their way to the entrance that was quite empty since most of the crowd had already moved into the concert hall. The girls found their seats pretty easily as most of the crowd was seated with IU already halfway through her opening song.

Looking at her girlfriend’s face which was turning paler with each passing moment, Soyeon asked her friends if they could help get Boram something to eat. Jiyeon and Hyomin volunteered instantly and quickly left for the concession stand just outside the concert hall.

—————

“I can’t believe there’s only one food counter open when there’s such a huge event going on!” grumbled Sooyoung as she and Yoona peered over the line ahead of them. A loud cheer erupted from the confines of the hall, Sooyoung groaned knowing that IU had probably just appeared on stage and was starting her opening number. “Can’t they move any faster?!” Sooyoung said loudly, muttering curses under her breath. Yoona patted her unnie’s shoulder comfortingly, “It’s alright unnie. I’m sure there will still be loads of delicious food waiting for us when we get to our turn.” Sighing, Sooyoung nodded at her friend. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Sooyoung and Yoona were next in line. Sooyoung looked in the display, she saw that there was only one bento and a couple of hotdogs left. The only other things that were available were packs of potato chips and some popcorn. “Thank goodness there’s beef in that bento. I’m starving!” thought Sooyoung gleefully. Sooyoung looked behind them and saw no one. She guessed most of the ones behind them had given up queueing when they heard IU had already appeared on stage. As the two of them were about to take the next step towards the counter, a blur of brown hair appeared in front of them.

“I’ll take that bento and hotdog please! And get me a box of popcorn too with four sodas and two bottles of water!”

Sooyoung exploded.

“YAH! You there! We were in the queue first!”

She had not expected a glare that could kill from a sharp pair of eyes when the girl in front of her turned her face around. 

“It’s not my fault you moved so slow.”

“M-moved slow? Are you blind kid?! We’ve been queueing for ages!”

“Pfft. You snooze, you lose.. slowpoke.”

“SLOWPOKE?! Watch who you’re calling slowpoke y-you.. you stick legs!”

“Speak for yourself, overgrown beanstalk.”

“W-wha- You stump!”

“DIMWIT!”

“POOPHEAD!”

“DUMBSHI-“

Just as Jiyeon was about to finish her sentence, Hyomin came to halting stop in front of them, panting heavily. Sooyoung peeked from the corner of her eyes to have a quick look at the pretty newcomer. Hyomin caught her breath and looked up, shocked that the two wore murderous expressions. She glanced at Yoona who was standing behind Sooyoung with a bewildered expression. “Dino, why did you suddenly take off so fast?” a tired out Hyomin turned to Jiyeon. 

“I wanted to make sure I got some food back to Boram unnie fast. Besides, I’ve been starving since just now,” said Jiyeon not breaking her staring match with the tall girl. Sooyoung hissed back at Jiyeon, “We’re starving too but that doesn’t mean we jump someone’s queue.” Hyomin looked at the food counter and saw that the scared cashier had placed Jiyeon’s order on the counter with nothing left in the display. Turning back to the two girls, “Did you jump this lady’s queue? That’s not nice, you know. Let her have the order, we’ll just go get something else from the shops across the street.”

Jiyeon broke her stare with Sooyoung and turned to Hyomin, “NO WAY!” In a flash, she grabbed the bag of food off the counter and ran with breaking speed back to their section as Sooyoung watched in horror at her meal disappearing. Hyomin sighed and looked at Sooyoung. 

“I’m sorry about my friend. She’s.. easily excited and was being rude because one of our friends isn’t feeling too well and needed something to eat. Look, order whatever you want from whatever that’s left and I’ll pay for it. It’ll be my way of saying sorry on her behalf,” said Hyomin, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. Sooyoung felt her anger ebb away hearing Hyomin’s explanation. “Nah, it’s fine. I couldn’t ask you to do that. Besides, I think I’ve lost my appetite already.” Hyomin shook her head and insisted to buy something for them. Finally caving in to Hyomin’s persistence, Sooyoung allowed her to buy the remaining packs of chips and some sodas. 

Bowing to the two of them after she paid the cashier, Hyomin told them that she had better get back to her friends and left after apologising for the hundredth time. Watching her retreating back, Yoona said to Sooyoung, “I like her. She’s really nice,” as she took a sip of her soda. Sooyoung nodded in agreement, “Stick Legs is lucky that she has nice friends like that girl.” The two girls started walking back to their section and took their seats after entering the concert hall. IU was already in the midst of her third song for the night. Sunny looked to Sooyoung who was took her seat next to her and whispered jokingly, “What took you guys so long? I was about to go to the police to file for missing persons.” Sooyoung recounted everything that had happened to Sunny. Patting her tall friend’s shoulder, she promised her friend that they’d go grab something to eat after meeting IU when the concert ended and told her to enjoy the remainder of the show.

—————

The crowd roared with a standing ovation as the curtains closed after IU’s encore song ended. As the lights in the concert halls came on, the crowd slowly moved towards the exits and the clean up crew moved in with their equipment. Sunny and her friends picked up their things and made their way towards the backstage area. As they approached a black door that had the words backstage emblazoned on it, a burly man appeared and pointed a sign next to the door that read, “Staff Only”. Yuri flashed her pass at them and the man nodded, looking at the other girls. They pulled the passes out of their pockets and bags to show the security guard that they had similar ones as Yuri. The man nodded and held the door open for them, nodding while they thanked him.

They moved down the small hallway that had stage props and costumes strewn all over the place, leaving little room to move around. Tired crew members ran back and forth, most of them busy packing up the equipment they had meticulously set up hours ago. Sunny saw a crew member dozing off in a corner, no doubt tired from the day’s hard work to make sure nothing went wrong during the show. The girls reached a door which had a piece of paper stuck to it with large printed letters “IU Dressing Room”. Taeyeon knocked on the door and it opened to reveal a tired looked manager. Sunny vaguely heard Taeyeon explaining that they were friends of IU and signalled for the rest to the follow her in. 

IU was seated at on a sofa at the side of the room and seemed to be texting someone. A large smile broke out on her face when she saw her friends and got up hurriedly to hug each of them. “Did you girls enjoy the show?” she asked them. She proceeded to be bombarded with compliments and praises from every direction making the young girl blush. She humbly bowed to each of them, grateful that her sunbaes thought so highly of her. “I hope you girls can stay for a bit, I’ve got some friends coming to join us soon and Jiyeon will be with them,” she said and immediately glanced at her phone screen when she a beep showed her a message that her other friends had arrived. “They’re here!” she said excitedly as she moved to the door and opened it, flinging her arms around the person standing in front.

Sunny watched IU pull the girl into the room with her friends following her behind her and gasped when she saw a hauntingly beautiful familiar brunette who wore an equally shocked expression as she realized Sunny was staring at her.

“HYOMIN?!”

“YOU?!”

“Sunbae-nim.. YOUUU!!”

“Kim Taeyeon..”

“S-sunny?”

“Jiyeon-ssi?”

“Soyeon!”

Sunny turned her head in surprise of hearing more than one voice and she saw Sooyoung wearing an angry expression directed to the sharp eyed girl who was holding confused IU, initially shocked to see Hyoyeon before turning to glare at Sooyoung. Hyomin had followed Sunny’s eyes and gasped when she saw Sooyoung’s expression before turning to look at Jiyeon who was the reason behind that fire. Tiffany’s eyes were darting back and forth between Taeyeon and Soyeon who were staring at each other with surprised expressions.

Seohyun looked at the girls who were looking at one another in a multitude of emotions, “Uh oooh..”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author’s Note:

Hey everyone! 

This was by far one of the most fun chapters to write, all thanks to Sooyoung and Jiyeon. 

I’m sorry to leave you guys at a cliffhanger but this chapter would be far too long if I did not separate it.

Thank you to those who recently subscribed and up voted this story. I really did not expect much response for my first fic, but I’m really touched and will keep doing my best! You guys ROCK! :D