Seulgi hasn’t heard from Joohyun in two weeks.

She thinks of the woman of black and white more often than she should, little bits and pieces of snapshots of dark eyes and pale skin managing to slip themselves into her daily life so she can’t possibly forget her.

Seulgi’s distracted most of the time, the knowledge of the lie still lingering in the back of her thoughts, but the feeling of missing someone overwhelmingly dethroning the now seemingly childish thoughts of having been betrayed.

And although she’s far from a chipper persona, people still manage to catch a whiff of her dampened mood - particularly Sooyoung.

There’s nothing more to do, but toil through it to get her mind off of Joohyun - though it has proved to be futile.

“Earth to Kang Seulgi. Are you even alive? Sorry, she’s not usually like this.”

Seulgi blinks at Sooyoung’s commentary to someone else, a soft chuckle that so obviously didn’t come from the giant, having her snap out of her Joohyun-induced stupor.

When she looks up, it’s all she can do not to do a double take because wow, she’s gorgeous.

“There she is. Princess, this is Eunae. Eunae, that’s Seulgi. Well, technically unnie to both of us, but I refuse.”

“Hello, Unnie, my name is Jo Eunae. It’s nice to meet you.”

Seulgi inclines her head as this Eunae bows to her with a beautiful smile, wondering if she should stand, but deciding against it when she realizes that there’s not much of a height difference between her and Sooyoung.

She’ll look like a dwarf at best.

She glances at Sooyoung, then back at Eunae, and spits out the first thing that comes to mind.

“Sooyoung doesn’t have friends.”

Said woman starts violently at the statement, pointing an accusing finger at Seulgi with betrayal written in her eyes.

“Hey! That’s you, not me. Just because you’re a hermit doesn’t mean I am!”

“Not a hermit, more like . . . an attack dog?” Eunae says.

Seulgi can’t say she’s disappointed at this change of events - Sooyoung being bullied when she’s there and available to be victim - and it’s admittedly satisfying to see her annoyed.

“Anyway,” Sooyoung says, clearing and regaining lost posture, “she’s a newbie in the company and they wanted to add her into our team. She’ll be working with us now.”

This has her scanning the woman again, going over long limbs and slender frame, sharp eyes and silky hair. She can see why she was recruited.

“Let’s work well.”

“Of course, Unnie!”

The shoot goes along well, Eunae (whom she learns goes as D.ana to the public) complementing Sooyoung’s fiery image and Seulgi’s cool exterior as a mediator between them, switching between hot and cold as needed.

They’re the center of attention even among senior models, the centerpiece of a table set for few, and an idol for jealousy.

And Seulgi doesn’t like the look of one of the seniors while they’re shooting.

Her suspicions come to fruition after the shoot is over.

They’re getting ready to leave, when one of the senior models blocks Seulgi’s way, towering over her as an adult would over a child, a sneer plastered across painted features.

“Aw, are you lost? Where’s mommy and daddy?” the woman says.

Seulgi watches her, unamused by the annoyance and checks her phone instead, spotting Sooyoung storming across the room out of the corner of her eyes.

But it’s not Sooyoung who swoops in to save the day as a red-headed superhero, but a raven-haired beauty.

“I think you’re a little too old to be using childish antics like this, don’t you, Sunbae-nim?”

Eunae’s stance is powerful, a clear display of dominance - shoulders squared, back straight, legs spread shoulder width, arms crossed - and the intimidation works.

Seulgi feels Sooyoung step into place next to her, just slightly behind her as if guarding her.

The older woman seems shaken, eyes darting from Eunae to Sooyoung then to her, skin showing hints of blotchiness from what Seulgi was sure was both frustration and embarrassment.

“Do you know who I am?”

Her voice is high pitched and unstable, eyes looking to be bulging out from their sockets, her malnourished frame trembling like a lone leaf in an autumn breeze, and Seulgi almost feels bad for her - almost.

“Just let it go and leave. We don’t want any trouble,” Sooyoung says, indifference flickering lazily over her features.

Seulgi’s glad she has them by her side.

It’s clear that the woman thinks better than to press onto a losing battle, emitting a last disgruntled hmph then stalking away with her nose in the air.

The silent room gradually fills with noise once more as the tension ebbs away into nothing but flimsy strings between the three of them.

“Are you okay, Unnie?”

“She’s fine. She deals with this all the time because she’s tiny, right Princess?”

Eunae continues to watch her with soft eyes despite Sooyoung’s mischief, and Seulgi does her best not to shy away from the gentle demeanor she’s unaccustomed to.

It reminds her too much of Joohyun.

Seulgi’s manager comes bustling up a moment later, precariously balancing three bags and a box in his hands, and informs them that he’ll be taking them back to their apartment.

He’s a big guy and is apparently attractive because she’s seen candid shots of him floating around on forums with captions like “Oh my god, Seulgi’s manager is so hot”, but all she sees is an overpowered grandmother who loves to nag.

It’s automatic when she spins on her heel to begin her trek out the door and into the van, but then she hears Eunae offering to help carry some of the baggage and even Sooyoung mutter something about handing them over, and she’s suddenly flushing red and backtracking to help.

She needs to work on her manners.

~

Seulgi doesn’t know what to do when she spots Joohyun seated in the lobby of their apartment building, Sooyoung and Eunae’s footsteps stuttering to a pause just behind her as she halts in her tracks.

“Looks like your knight in shining armor is here, Princess. Stop being so overdramatic and go talk to her.”

Seulgi knows that the red-headed woman is right, that one lie shouldn’t affect her like this and ultimately tear apart what they had built between them, but she supposes that she hasn’t matured yet, not as much as she should have, because all she can think about is how to escape the situation.

“Who is that? Is she a celebrity?” Eunae asks softly.

“No, she should be, though. She’s Seulgi’s girl. Or, more like Seulgi’s her girl.”

Their words fall on deaf ears, Seulgi’s fingers executing their habitual response to stress by twisting into the soft material of her hoodie, teeth snagging her bottom lip in the process.

Just as Seulgi knew she eventually would, Joohyun’s gaze sweeps in their direction and eventually captures her own. Even from this distance they still manage to affect her.

The woman immediately unfolds from her seat, looking every bit an elegant swan, dressed in signature black and white.

For some reason, the color scheme seems comforting.

“Seulgi.”

It’s not as if Seulgi doesn’t notice how Joohyun seems to have eyes solely for her, as if Sooyoung and Eunae don’t exist when she’s present, and it makes her want to curl away into darkness where Joohyun can’t see her.

It’s as if she’s the center of the woman’s universe.

“Hello, Unnie!”

Only then does Joohyun’s gaze flit away from Seulgi’s, eyes widening as if the fact that Seulgi was flanked by two giants hadn’t registered in her mind.

“Oh, hello, Sooyoung. And you are?”

“Hello my name is Jo Eunae. It’s nice to meet you.”

Seulgi feels Sooyoung’s arm sling across her shoulders, friendly and comforting, steady. Just as she has always known it to be. She’s grateful. She always has been.

“Alright, well, you two have fun. Don’t come home too late, I’ll be waiting.”

Sooyoung offers her a final squeeze against her shoulder, flashing a mischievous wink before tugging Eunae along behind her towards the elevators.

The silence is deafening, a blanketed shroud of ice that Seulgi knows would only take a simple touch to shatter, but also knows that the both of them are hesitant to take initiative of acting upon it.

“Could we . . . go somewhere to talk?”

There it was, the vulnerability peeking out from beneath what Seulgi has gradually recognized to be nothing but a mask of confidence.

It’s the look in Joohyun’s pools of black that has Seulgi tugging against the fabric of her sweater one last time before turning on her heel towards the entrance, turning her head just enough so there wouldn’t be the possibility of the older woman missing her words.

“Let’s go to the street.”

~

Seulgi has always found nostalgia to be a funny thing.

Sitting outside of a cafe on the same street that Joohyun had heroically saved her on brings nostalgia on a whole different level, realizing how little time had passed since that encounter (approximately two months and a week).

She watches Joohyun fidgeting fingers wrapped around a cup of hot chocolate, an interesting choice considering the woman’s affinity for black and white, hence Seulgi’s assumption that she would spring for the chance of a black coffee.

“I’m sorry.”

Joohyun’s voice is as soothing as it has always been, yet still demanding to be heard, clear and articulate in its flawless execution, and it’s as if her emotions are etched into every syllable, written clearly for Seulgi to read and interpret as she pleases.

“ . . . I know.”

The woman looks up, eyelashes fluttering in quick succession as if not daring to believe Seulgi’s words, her casual acceptance of her remorse.

“I know you’re sorry, but I need to know why. Why you dragged me outside, what you’re hiding.”

Joohyun immediately stiffens in response, the fingers that had been twitching restlessly abruptly still, as if they had turned to stone.

People mill around them, tinkling laughter and warm conversations a steady constant in the atmosphere that somewhat alleviates the tension that threatens to consume them.

Seulgi doesn’t like conflict, doesn’t create it needlessly as if she were a factory, but she isn’t the type to run when it does appear in front of her, demanding to be worked with. She’s no coward.

When there’s no response, she feels her patience wearing thin, frustration beginning to boil over to fill what it shouldn’t.

“I just need you to talk to me,” she growls out, teeth clenching in the effort not to lash out with her tongue, spitting hurtful words she doesn’t truly mean, “Am I asking for too much?”

This is the most she’s ever said in one sitting already, and they’ve barely begun.

“No, you’re not. I just - I - I can’t. You’ll see me differently, I don’t want that.”

Seulgi feels pain blossom anew along her hand, shooting through her body, and she nearly screams, realizing that in her haze of listening to Joohyun’s poor excuse for her heavy tongue, she’d crushed the coffee cup with fingers lined in anger.

“Oh my god! Seulgi!”

Joohyun’s springing out of her chair as Seulgi desperately attempts to fling off the steaming liquid from her skin, alabaster now turned a fiery red, the older woman spinning on her heel to rush into the cafe, presumably to grab some napkins and inform the staff of what had occurred.

She’s dumb, but she’s never been that stupid. She wonders what Joohyun’s doing to her.

It takes Joohyun less than three seconds to return, clutching a wad of napkins and wielding a bag of ice as if they were weapons, and not materials snatched up hastily for the purpose of healing.

There are a series of concerned phrases that flow like water from Joohyun’s lips, are you okay’s and you should have been more careful’s as she gently wipes away the remnants of the coffee from her skin and then places the bag of ice over the darkest splotch of red on the back of her hand.

Joohyun’s brows are furrowed, lips pursed and lined with worry and Seulgi’s overwhelmed by the fact that it’s all because of her, that she can elicit such a reaction from Joohyun.

She thinks, maybe, she’d been too hasty, too unwilling to be patient when she should be more understanding, and once again, the guilt seeps back, and with it, the willingness to forgive.

The fingers of her free hand are moving of their own accord, brushing away loose strands and tucking them behind Joohyun’s ear before she can so much as think, and Joohyun’s freezing in her tracks, eyes widening.

“ . . . I’ll try to be patient. You . . . You don’t have to tell me if you don’t think you’re ready, but please. Tell me soon, okay?”

Dark, dark eyes pull her back into their void, too captivating, too enamoring, and then, they’re suddenly gone, but not before Seulgi catches the twinkle of what she realizes are tears b at their edges, the woman looking down at Seulgi’s injured hand instead.

Her voice is hoarse, but soft all the same when she speaks.

“Okay.”

~

A/N: It's been two months, but at least it's here, right? Thank you all for waiting and for taking the time to read! As always, upvotes and comments are appreciated, but never mandatory. Until next time!