Seulgi braces herself for an explosion that never comes.

Sooyoung’s watching her with quiet eyes that portray a serenity she’s not used to seeing in pools of autumn brown.

“I thought so,” she muses, nimble fingers playing with strands of brilliant red.

She’d re-dyed her hair just this morning, waving away Seulgi’s concern for the damage and assuring her that it would be fine.

Seulgi’s betting on it dying in just short of a month.

She can feel her brows straining to meet above the bridge of her nose at the nonchalant response that Sooyoung casually lets flow.

She doesn’t like the idea of the redhead possibly knowing something about her girlfriend before her.

“What do you mean?”

Sooyoung sits up on her bed, offering her a look that Seulgi knows all too well.

“Really? Even you can’t be blind enough to miss the whole black-and-white thing.”

“I didn’t. That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Then, what? The PTSD, OCD thing? You do know that you’re pretty dense most of time, right?”

Seulgi bites on her tongue at the statement that prods at her conscience, straining to recall anything she may have missed.

There’s nothing she can think of other than the glaringly obvious affiliation for black-and-white and the mystery cloud that had shrouded the woman for so long.

She feels guilt gnaw away at her heart for the attentiveness that Joohyun unconditionally gives her that she can’t seem to reciprocate, chewing at her bottom lip.

“Not your fault that I excel in minute details, I suppose. You just look at the big picture, that’s all.”

She must look really upset if Sooyoung’s backtracking.

“What did I miss?”

“Get in here first and cuddle me. It’s the least you can do for disturbing my beauty sleep.”

“I have a girlfriend.”

Sooyoung scoffs, pulling back weird (seriously though, why?), green blankets and waving her in.

“I’m too good for you. Hurry up. It’s getting cold.”

She does as she’s told, sliding under the covers so their arms are pressed against each other and she can feel the giant’s body heat melding with her own.

“There. Not so hard, was it?”

Seulgi frowns.

“Tell me.”

“It’s in her eyes. For someone that seems so put together, they run away a lot.”

Run away? If anything, Joohyun’s eyes have always been steady, never wavering and always firm in their stance. She wonders if they’re talking about the same Joohyun.

“Well, except when she’s looking at you, her clothes, or her satchel.”

Oh. Well, that makes more sense than she’d initially thought it did.

She’s always fallen far too deep into endless pools of midnight and colorless schemes of black and white to notice something as subtle as that.

Sooyoung shifts beside her so she’s curled against her side instead, arm thrown over her stomach and face buried into her shoulder. It would have been awkward if it hadn’t been for the fact that this happened on a weekly basis.

“Enough about your girlfriend. I’m tired.”

Seulgi obediently falls silent, staring up at a star-speckled, black marble ceiling that resembles the one Sooyoung has back home.

Except, this one is more astronomically correct, and costs a lot more money than cheap, glow-in-the-dark stars plastered on drywall ceiling.

Sooyoung has always had an interest in space, and Seulgi had helped her glue those plastic stars on the ceiling as kids so she could sleep better at night.

They have a packed schedule tomorrow: back-to-back photoshoots and a midnight radio show to boot. It’s exhausting.

She wants to quit it all.

She lets her eyes flutter shut and pushes away heavy thoughts to make way for tendrils of sleep.

~

Seulgi’s glad her photoshoots are with Joy.

The fiery-headed, glamourous woman with overwhelming charisma is enough of a deterrent for spoiled adult children who conjure up drama from thin air.

And, of course, their reputation as top models in the industry.

She’s plenty aware of the stolen glances and hushed whispers that erupt around them whenever they walk by, but she keeps her eyes trained forward and her steps full of purpose just like she’s learned to do.

“You ready to destroy these sorry excuses for models?”

“Sure.”

“You’re never any fun, you know that?”

Seulgi shrugs noncommittally, glancing around the crowded studio before reacting to the sudden vibrations in the seams of her jeans.

Sender: Unknown number

This is Bae Yerim, Joohyun unnie’s younger sister.

If I could have some of your time, I have something

I would like to discuss with you.

She reads over it again and then one more time, processing words on a glowing screen while her thoughts run a mile a minute.

It isn’t particularly alarming that Yerim had managed to acquire her number - she is her girlfriend’s sister after all - but the fact that she wants to talk to her in private is.

Ever since Joohyun had waltzed into her life with an eccentricity that didn’t belong in her world, she’d experienced so many oddities that she hasn’t had time to run them through her head yet.

It’s almost instinct when she taps the box to formulate a reply, still blinking steadily at the text box as if it would disappear at any given moment. It doesn’t.

Sender: Kang Seulgi

I’m free tomorrow around noon.

Sooyoung’s still rambling on about some drama she’d watched a few nights ago, her expression animated and gestures over exaggerated so she resembles a character from the cartoons she’d watched as a kid.

She doesn’t expect the reply that buzzes along her fingers half a minute after she taps send.

Sender: Unknown number

Then tomorrow noon at The Cafe?

Seulgi’s bypassed the place often but never had the motivation or chance to visit the place, finding the coffee shop she frequents satisfying enough to remain loyal.

Nevertheless, she constructs a quick response and gives it a once over before sending it on its way, stowing away her phone before Sooyoung can question it.

Sender: Kang Seulgi

That’s fine. I’ll see you there.

Sooyoung nudges her shoulder a moment later, jerking her head towards the set where two women are monitoring their shoots, looking slightly disgruntled before trudging off to their seats.

She follows Sooyoung up, subtly rolling back her shoulders and working out the minor kinks in her neck and arching her back.

Her hair and makeup are immaculately done, colors that directly replicate warm, inviting colors of autumn leaves to suit the fall season.

She’s wearing high-waisted jeans and sweater, finishing up the look with black combat boots, while Sooyoung sports a more casual approach with a beige coat and sneakers instead.

There’s a collective hush as they step into the spotlight, the lighting already turning her warm as she steps into place, allowing the stylists to initiate last minute touch ups.

She’s used to both literal and figurative limelights, used to being the center of attention, used to being scrutinized to the tee.

Yeah, she’s used to it.

~

Face masks are sent by heaven’s angels and no one can tell her otherwise.

As soon as she steps into The Cafe with her favorite black mask draped like a blanket across her face and adopting a deceivingly hunched posture to ward away scrutinizing eyes, she heads straight for a vacant seat nestled in the far corner.

It’s habit at this point, and she feels like a seasoned cop too wary of the world to offer it an ounce of her trust.

The Cafe is a nice place overall: dark wood walls and floors, high ceiling with hanging lights, organized counter, but a busier ambiance than her coffee shop - better for her considering the fact that she’d blend in a lot easier.

She’d barely taken a seat when Yerim walks in, confident steps clacking against laminated floorboards and drawing even the attentions of weary college students (a feat considering how brain-dead they all are).

The girl has a presence that demands attention, exuding an aura of confidence that can’t be faked, and Seulgi knows then and there that her inconspicuous entrance was for naught. The girl could rival Sooyoung even without the height and flaming red hair.

Yerim clacks her way to her table, a smile soft across her lips, even going so far as to lighten her eyes.

“Hello, Seulgi unnie.”

“Hi.”

Yerim takes a seat in front of her as she places her purse that Seulgi knows is far over an average citizen’s price range on the chair beside her.

First Joohyun and now her. It’s reaching impossible not to notice the expenses of their belongings.

“I believe we should order first, right?”

The girl raises a dainty hand that has an employee springing into action, weaving his way through the maze of occupied seats to reach their table.

“Welcome to The Cafe. What would you ladies like today?”

“I’d like an iced americano, please.”

“A regular coffee. Please.”

There’s silence for a beat too long, and Seulgi looks up just in time to catch the glint of recognition in the man’s eyes, familiar and dreaded.

“You’re -”

Seulgi’s confused at the words that stay stuck in the employee’s throat, until she’s looking down to see Yerim’s hand resting against his forearm, gentle enough so it’s not aggressive, but firm enough that it draws attention.

She leans towards him conspiratorially and Seulgi watches as the man instinctively follows suit.

“My friend and I would truly appreciate it if you could keep this quiet. We don’t have the opportunity to meet often, so it would mean a lot.”

Seulgi can’t help but admire the girl’s steadfast approach and sincere demeanor - the definition of someone who’s truly comfortable in her own skin.

It’s obvious at this point that the man is willing to do anything to appease Yerim, nodding in quick succession as his gaze darts towards her only to speed away again.

A smile from Yerim and a quick flash of a nod from herself has him scurrying away with their orders on a notepad, the nerves that had only been coiling tighter and tighter beginning to smooth out.

“You really are an anomaly, Unnie. I respect that.”

Yerim’s expression is one that directly corresponds with her words, no hint of sly deceit and only the open, honest truth.

It reminds her of Joohyun. Seulgi respects that.

“You wanted to talk?”

Yerim’s expression shifts into business, warmth receding from pools of brown as her posture stiffens into one Seulgi’s seen in countless business men and women walking along the streets.

It shouldn’t belong to someone like her.

“Well, it’s about Joohyun unnie.”

It only then occurs to her that she should mention their early morning conversation, even if it’s not in detail.

“She told me. OCD and PTSD.”

Yerim looks genuinely taken aback, brow arching and lips parting just the slightest in a way that Seulgi wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t witnessed the change.

“Unnie must like you a lot more than I expected. I don’t mean that as an insult, really,” Yerim adds quickly. “I’m just genuinely surprised. Unnie’s strong suit isn’t in trusting other people, but you seem to have earned it in record timing.”

She feels odd pride in the statement, thinking back to Joohyun’s vulnerable figure and cracked shell that she’d willingly put on display for her to see. She knows how difficult it is to pull down walls that you’ve so painstakingly built, no matter who you tear them down for.

“Despite that, what I wanted to tell you - .”

“Bae Yerim, what do you think you’re doing?”

The timbre of the voice is familiar, the husky undertone a dead give away to the person expelling it into crowded air that suddenly thins out into nothing because the coldness of it is foreign.

Seulgi finds herself reeling back goosebumps.

A quick study of Joohyun - windswept hair, crinkled shirt, lopsided satchel - tells her that she hadn’t taken her time in reaching them.

There’s a sort of wild fury in Joohyun’s midnight sky for eyes and they send a legitimate thrill of fear through her.

“U-Unnie.”

Joohyun grabs her by the crook of her arm and yanks her out of her seat, harsh and demanding that Seulgi almost yelps for everyone to hear.

It’s not so much out of pain or fear, but surprise at Joohyun’s jagged movements and shattered tranquility, something she’d believed to be a constant in her persona.

“We’re leaving,” Joohyun growls through her teeth.

“Unnie, wait!”

And before she can so much as process it, Seulgi’s being whisked out into the cool autumn air, duly aware of vice-like grip and furious strength that she never would have imagined coming from the woman in black and white.

Shock keeps her silent and equal parts compliant as Joohyun drags her through colorful streets littered with red, orange, and gold, and she can only hope she knows where she’s going because Seulgi’s horrible with directions.

It’s only when they continue walking for another minute that Seulgi finally snaps out of it, stopping in her tracks and tugging back her captive arm.

She’s scared and confused, and she wants answers.

Joohyun turns around in a whirlwind of dark tresses, breathing heavily with a rosy tint to fair skin that Seulgi would have found enamouring if it wasn’t for the situation they were in.

“What’s going on? Why are you like this?”

The wild light in Joohyun’s eyes blink out of existence as abruptly as it had appeared, and Seulgi can see horror dawning in them instead, as if the woman was just coming to the realization of what she had done.

A pale hand hastily slips away from her arm, the unwarranted grip replaced by trembling fingers instead, a light gasp escaping equally shaky lips.

“I-I’m sorry, I truly didn’t mean to hurt you. Did I hurt you?”

Seulgi rubs against reddening skin, easing away the tingles from the lack of circulation - not from pain.

“No, it doesn’t hurt.”

She watches as Joohyun runs fingers through her hair, expression drawn and pensive as she takes in a deep breath and sighs.

Passersby simply walk around them, not sparing them a second glance even as they stand in the middle of the sidewalk as if they’re the only two people in the world.

“Why are you so angry?”

Seulgi’s never been great at interrogation and conflict, usually leaving that for Sooyoung to major in, and avoiding it herself altogether.

But Joohyun makes her want to know, and Seulgi can’t tell if that’s a bad thing or not.

“Yerim should not have contacted you without letting me know. It isn’t her place.”

Seulgi feels a telltale knot in the pit of her stomach at the words, Joohyun’s expression not offering much comfort behind its iron curtain.

“Are you hiding something?”

There’s a moment of fleeting hesitation that Seulgi catches beneath a wall of unyielding silver, but then it disappears and there’s only stone-like cold left behind.

“No, of course not.”

~

Seulgi hates lies.

No matter how painful the truth, she’s always appreciated it because it’s the highest form of honesty there is.

Telling the truth isn’t easy at the best of times, but that’s why she admires it.

Lying is cowardice and deceit, utilized when people can’t bring themselves to face the facts even as they tell themselves that it’s to protect the one they love.

She’s learned a long time ago that the truth always has a way of slipping out from murky waters, battered and dirty from suppression, but triumphant in the end.

Seulgi may be dull when it comes to certain things, but she has an uncanny knack for spotting lies no matter how experienced her counterpart is at telling them.

So, Joohyun’s lie cuts into her like a knife, carving the word into her skin over and over again, staining her in fiery crimson that just hurts.

Trust isn’t something that comes naturally to her, not since Krystal. But Joohyun had managed to somehow build herself a small base of trust in Seulgi’s heart, the beginning of something that could possibly grow like a delicate flower in a barren wasteland.

Sooyoung, despite being rough and callous, almost insensitive at times, always seems to be in tune with her emotions, adopting a keen sense for mood only when it has correlation to her.

This time isn’t any different.

“What’s up?”

Her response is automatic, but futile.

“Nothing.”

Sooyoung doesn’t so much as spare her a glance, continuing to tap away at colorful, glowing dots racing down her phone screen, grumbling at a duly missed one that flashes the designs red.

“You know better than that by now.”

Seulgi purses her lips, glowering at red hair curtaining an undoubtedly concentrated expression, and waits for the game to end (Because, really, how long can the stupid game last?).

Apparently a while.

It’s only by sheer luck that Sooyoung’s game ends just as her patience wears thin like brakes on a tire used too long, taking in a deep breath as she watches the woman toss down her phone with careless abandon and only then offer her her attention.

“You done?”

“Patience, Grandmother.”

It requires all of her willpower not to strike out and deliver a well-deserved blow to the giant’s red head.

“So, really. What’s up?”

“ . . . She lied to me.”

The statement springs out like a jack-in-the-box, abrupt and jarring in the way the words come gravelling out of , and even she’s taken aback by the rawness of it - rubbed clean to the bone.

The effect is instantaneous, Sooyoung’s lazy sprawl across the couch snapping into attention, expression hard and ready to defend, to protect. The instincts of a mother.

“What did she lie to you about?”

“ . . . I don’t know.”

Sooyoung throws up her hands in a way that Seulgi can tell doesn’t symbolize surrender, exasperation clear across sharp features as she stares at her incredulously.

“Then how do you know she lied to you?”

Seulgi bites her lip that’s free from flecks of bright red or pink for once, worrying soft flesh that’s accustomed to the abuse by now, fiddling with the end of her sweater with thoughtful fingers as she does so.

“I just know.”

“Of course you do,” Sooyoung sighs. “Now, are you joining me in bed today? I don’t mind,” Sooyoung says with a sly grin.

“You snore.”

“And you don’t?”

Seulgi pulls a face, snagging her phone off the kitchen counter and administering a well-aimed slap on Sooyoung’s thigh that earns her a yelp, before raising a hand in farewell.

She needs some sleep.

~

Yeri would rather be into a jail packed with ex-convicts equipped with automatic rifles than face an angry Joohyun.

She thinks she can see the gates to Hell creaking open behind the woman in black and white, spewing flames and smoke that are meant to sear through her body and singe her soul.

Joohyun’s not large by any standards, a walking piece of paper if anything, but at this moment, Yeri couldn’t conjure up an image of anything more terrifying if she tried.

She’s rooted at Joohyun’s doorstep, unreasonable (though not unreasonable at all) fear coursing through every vein in her body (although unwilling to display it), having been invited over an hour earlier for what she had been fully aware would not be a civil conversation, but a losing battle with the remainder of her life on the line, yet to be ushered inside and offered a seat.

Another tense minute ticks by with Joohyun’s gaze scorching into hers, Yeri finding herself trapped in fiery pools of black that she’s sure no one holds the ability to resist.

Then, the older woman is wordlessly stepping back from the doorway, an obviously silent command of get in here, and despite her mask of bravado, she nearly trips over her own two feet, cursing the mandatory three-inch heels her mother supplies her with.

She may be the reluctant heir to the throne of one of Korea’s top entertainment agencies, but that has nothing to do with the natural charisma that Joohyun exudes that has people bending to her every will like putty.

It’s at these moments that Yeri can’t help but feel that familiar pang of resentment starting out from the base of her stomach and coiling into her lungs, choking her, restricting her from breathing in the fresh air she needs to think properly, to listen to reason and not childish tantrums, because Yeri’s had to learn false confidence, has had to painstakingly knit together a mask of charisma that Joohyun has had from the very beginning, has had to become someone she isn’t, someone she doesn’t want to be - a leader.

That’s all behind them now (at least, that’s what she wants to believe), so she silently fills in shoes several sizes too big in order to hold their family together - whatever’s left of it.

“Why.”

Yeri snaps into attention at the single syllable, a word that’s meant to be a question molded into a statement that has her quaking where she stands, but doesn’t allow to manifest in the depths of her steady gaze, trained since young to never betray her emotions when speaking to the enemy.

It hurts her to realize that Joohyun’s become the enemy.

“Because. The both of you are only going to get hurt in the end if you keep holding this back. She has the right to know.”

“You don’t have the right to decide that! It’s not for you to decide!”

“I don’t want to see you getting hurt, Unnie! Not again!”

Joohyun’s expression crumples in the way paper does when crushed in between fingers and palm, deep anger evident in coal black eyes that almost seem lit in black flames, as hands curl into fists at her sides.

“If you ever cross boundaries again, I swear, I won’t see your face again. Do you understand? Stay. Away. From her.”

The words are squeezed through gritted teeth, her tongue an archer’s bow and every syllable arrows to pierce through Yeri’s admittedly faltering defense.

She watches Joohyun silently, searching for something that could betray her heavy mask of anger and defensive stance, but finding nothing that would allude of anything other than a mixture of negative emotion, a swirling void of intense colors that Yeri can’t read.

Joohyun has always been intense when the situation called for it, gentle soul or not.

“Fine. I’ll stay out of it. But when you get hurt, Unnie? When you end up hurting her? Don’t come to me. I already did the best I could.”

With that, she gracefully turns away from Joohyun and walks out the door, high heels clacking so loudly against the floor that she thinks they might pierce through the ground.

She just wants Joohyun to be happy.

She wonders if that’s too much to ask.

~

A/N: I believe that this is the longest chapter yet. This took a while and because school has officially begun, I don't have as much time to write, though I'm trying my best. Your comments really helped me push through that last leg and had me staying up during school nights toiling over just a few more paragraphs. I really appreciate it. Upvotes and subscribers are obviously extremely appreciated as well. This chapter is the introduction to angst, so I hope you're ready for some drama. Until next time!