Kyungwon normally didn't like having too much attention on her, but she certainly didn't mind if it came from a particular beautiful, dark haired girl who she was currently crushing on. The warm, ever-growing feeling inside her chest was increasing as Minkyung stood in front of her, trying to shield her from the helpless looking Mingyu in front of them. Not that she would ever allow it to show to the other two in the practice room.

"What?" Minkyung gestured with her head dramatically, reminding her of the rude bullies in the dramas that were always extrememely badass and she couldn't help but be attracted to. Kyulkyung said it was weird, but she just decided to ignore her.

Mingyu sighed, running his fingers through his very curly hair and shaking it roughly. "Look, I can understand why you're mad at me, but there's no reason to be rude." He tried reasoning, which only made the protective girl reach behind her blindly and keep a hold of the large jumper the other was wearing. There was a moment of deafening silence in the room which made it seem as if her ears had been completely blocked.

"What do you want me to do about it, pretty boy?" Minkyung snapped again, making Kyungwon put a comforting hand on her back and step beside her friend - much to her quiet whine of disapproval.

"Mingyu-sunbae, I would like it if we didn't communicate unless it has something to do with the duet." Kyungwon said coldly, making sure to fix him with a burning gaze that was bound to rend him speechless. Instead of the boy cowering in submitance, he huffed as if he thought the whole thing was ridiculous and took a step forward, resulting in them to take a step back.

"Oh please, what do you plan to do about it?" Mingyu mocked, scowling as Minkyung's fists clenched and Kyungwon quickly brushed the back of her hands to help her relax. "Brush all of this under the rug and ignore it until it goes away? Seems to be working out pretty well, doesn't it?"

He may be a right pain in the , but Kyungwon knew that he had a reason. The media, much to her dismay, had been massacring her through harsh, hate comments and even to some extremes going to death threats, and she could only imagine what the other celebreties had to say about Mingyu. Which was probably the reason why he had actually showed up after disappearing for a little under two weeks. Kyungwon had had to finish coreographing the rest of their dance with the song that he had chosen and had even gotten the other girls to stand in for Mingyu's role while he decided to play dead.

Kyungwon clenched her teeth and decided that she wasn't going to take anymore of his crap.

"Look here, president bag," She raised her voice, the expression on her face probably not suficing for what she truly felt. "it's not my damned fault that I helped you out and now karma's biting me in the for helping the devil's offspring. So if you could get off our ing case, it would be a great pleasure to all of us."

Mingyu's expression was blank, though probably more intimidating than any other face he could wear. He stood in silence, staring at her with no traces of emotion or reaction and simply leaving the conversation to die right in front of them. Kyungwon swore it was the most intimidated she had ever been in her life so far. Had she gone too far?

The boy nodded slowly, humming quietly though seeming loud as it filled in the empty silence in the tense room. Minkyung's grip on her hand tightened as she too began to sense something other than a simple verbal argument coming along, proof of this as Mingyu's hands clenched into fists and he heaved a long breath. Kyungwon noticed his eyes beginning to turn red, but it was quickly hidden away by the wisps of hair that fell to hide them like a curtain. There was definitely more to the situation than what Mingu let on, yet she didn't want to know anything about it.

"I see." He muttered, chuckling bitterly to himself as he stepped back. "Well then, I'll take this as my cue to leave."

Once his figure had disappeared even behind the door, Minkyung finally released her hand and let out a witheld breath that matched hers perfectly, moving to their bags by the desk beside the piano. Kyungwon clenched her jaw, a feeling of guilt storming her insides as she tentatively followed after the other girl, scared that she was angry at her for the encounter.

After fighting her own mind, she stood behind the girl, prepared to give her apology. "Minky..." She let out, her voice sounding a lot smaller than she had planned. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I didn't mean to ruin your day and you definitely didn't have to do that for me. You shouldn't have done that for me, you just-"

Minkyung turned to face her, taking a step into her personal space and sending her internal organs into a rampage. Her words halted in and all she could do was stare at the frowning girl in front of her with wide eyes and open, prepared to make a speech about why she was the one to blame. She thanked her senses for not failing completely, though she didn't know if she should be cursing them instead what with the way the comforting smell of Minkyung's recently washed clothes and hair overtook her. Even in the heated practice room, courtesy of their own sweat and hard work, the girl still managed to maintain a clean image.

Biting her lip, Kyungwon broke the tense staring competition and tried to move her gaze somewhere less dangerous. She knew it was a bad idea when her eyes landed on the exposed bit of skin on the girl's neck, the rest of her hair swept to rest on the other shoulder. It may have been because of the dimming lightbulb, something that they would have to fix later, but Minkyung's skin was darker than usual, and she wasn't sure if she liked it more than her pale skin or not. The thin layer of sweat glistened, a bead already making its way down the side and tracing all of her features. Something Kyungwon wished she could do with her own hands.

Maybe she could. There was a one in a million chance of Minkyung being able to return her feelings, but perhaps it wasn't that difficult for that chance to be in her favor. Just the other day she had taken notice of a same ed couple on her way home, and if there were more people like her then that meant that she herself had a chance, right?

After convincing herself that it was possible, she shakily raised her hand, her gaze following it to make sure it didn't do anythign stupid. Before she could do anything, however, Minkyung's slender fingers slipped into it and interlaced her own digits with them.

"Kyungwon." The hairs on the back of her neck raised, a chill running through her. It was rare for the girl to use her actual name and not address her with one of her nicknames. "Don't blame yourself for something that's not anyone's fault. I don't care that I angered a senior, I care that that senior was making you uncomfortable. I won't stand for people thinking they can rule over us just because they debuted and we haven't. And I need you to get through your thick skull that I care about you." Minkyung proved her point by knocking her head backwards with her knuckles. "You're one of the greatest friends I've ever had, Kyungie."

"Don't let Eunwoo catch you saying that." Kyungwon joked, taking a step backwards to put much needed distance between them. The atmosphere was too intimate for her liking, much to heavy and suffocating. Not only that but her eyes kept drifting to a particular feature that shouldn't be hers to look at. Especially when everything Minkyung was saying was strictly platonic.

Minkyung rolled her eyes, playfully pushing her further away. "What's that midget gonna do? Punch my knees until she gets tired?" She mocked, following Kyungwon's lead and gathering her things.

Snorting, the shorter haired girl shook her head. "I'll have you know, my best friend has a strong punch on her." She stated proudly, grinning to herself as she remembered the bruise on her arm. "I don't recommend getting into a fight with her, no matter how small she looks."

"Tch." Minkyung scoffed, squinting at her. "I don't understand why she's so competitive over the best friend title," She smoothly took Kyungwon's outstretched arm and hooked onto her, leading the way to the door. "one, someone can have more than one best friend and two, it's not even her choice to decide whether you get to have more than one or not."

Was she jealous? Kyungwon tensed at her own assumption and quickly shook that thought out of her head before it grew into something worse. She forced out a laugh, knocking their shoulder together playfully. "If I didn't know any better, I would've thought you were jealous." She jested, not able to contain her curiosity.

There was a moment of silence as Minkyung sent her a cheeky, victorious smirk. "Then you don't know better." The answer was cryptic, and the wheels in Kyungwon's brain worked quickly to understand what the girl had meant, malfunctioning once she realised what Minkyung had implied. Again, she knocked their shoulders but with much more force, too embarrassed to come up with a smart retort. Minkyung just cackled happily and pulled her along the streets.

She had never enjoyed being stared at for too long. It was unsettling and uncomfortable, making her feel insecure and self-conscious. Had she forgotten to wipe after eating jjajangmyun with Eunwoo and Kyulkyung? Or perphaps her hair was sticking out in an awkward manner and no one had even bothered to tell her about it. Whatever it was, it made her feel off and she certainly didn't enjoy the attention as much as others would have expected her to.

Especially since it came from a certain pink haired girl who seemed to often forget she was three years younger than her and she should really know the bounderies between an unnie and a dongsaeng. She had really expected for Siyeon to be off bothering any other one of the girls - more speifically Eunwoo - but it seemed that the younger girl had gotten tired of playing with them and had moved onto her now. This was one of the last things she wanted to happen, seeing as the devious smile on the pink haired girl's face had been there for the past ten mintues. Nor had she moved from the seat.

Finally reaching her breaking point, she glared at her through slitted eyes. "What? Do I have something on my face?" She snapped, watching as the girl hummed to herself and straightened her posture for the first time since she occupied the seat across her. Kyungwon felt wary as Siyeon crossed her arms across her chest and leant on the table, inclining herself towards her.

"Yes, beauty."

Choking on her previously delicious strawberry and banana smoothie, Kyungwon widened her eyes at the cheeky girl and tried not to die the most embarrassing death ever. The unexpected answer had sent her drink down the wrong tube and she had the unfortunate luck to choke on it pathetically as the cause of it simply giggled delightedly at her misfortune. This was one of the many reasons why Kyungwon called her the devil.

"W-what?" She stuttered dumbly, still trying to recover herself. It wasn't her fault that she was at the recieving end of Siyeon's shameless flirting, and not forgetting to mention that she was still very, very queer. Perhaps something that the other didn't know but it was something that she herself was acutely aware of.

Siyeon leaned closer as if intending to share a secret, which only made her cautiously back away into her seat. "Unnie," She whispered, a cheeky grin on her face that screamed trouble. "what do you think of girls liking girls."

Kyungwon sat still, paralyzed in her seat at the question. No. She had made sure that she was cautious on the way she behaved around Minkyung. She had made it obvious between them that they were strictly friends and nothing more (maybe best friends behind Eunwoo's back). There was no way that she had raised any red flags for Siyeon, an oblivious girl who lacked in people reading skill, for her to jump onto and suddenly question her out of no where. Was this the reason why she had been following her around lately? Because she was mocking her?

She wouldn't fall for it. She refused to. There was no way she'd be caught out by her.

"It's wrong." She broke the silence and the expectant look on Siyeon's awaiting face ruthlessly. As soon as she saw Siyeon's face fall in the slightest of ways, very faintly but still noticable, she began to wonder if the younger girl had been hoping for a different answer.

"Oh." The pink haired girl sat back in her seat, wallowing in the dense atmosphere created by the tension and awkwardness: Kyungwon's doing.

They remained like that, the distant voices of the other girls messing around in the park and screaming like children filling in the silence. It had been the wrong answer. Kyungwon knew. But what she didn't know was how to take it back now that she'd said it.

"What do you think about it, Siyeon?" Kyungwon asked, looking at the cracks of the metalic table they sat at outside of the small cafe. The younger girl had been sending her mixed signals for a while now, and she didn't seem like someone to judge others too much so it wouldn't hurt in asking her.

Siyeon sighed, glancing at the direction of the others with a tinge of longing in her gaze. "I don't understand why people hate it so much." Kyungwon's eyes widened in surprise, looking up to stare at the young girl's pensive expression to see if she was serious or not. "There is no reason for it to be wrong. Most people aren't religious, so they don't have a valid excuse, and they can't say it's unnatural because this kind of relationship has existed since the beginning of time - did you know that humans are the only species to not accept homouality? Just because someone is a little different, it doesn't mean that it's sinful. In fact I think it's the opposite." Kyungwon sat there, stunned into silence with no words to express how proud she was feeling. "Why should loving, something that is supposed to be good, seen as bad? And why should hating the people that are like this be seen as good? It just doesn't make sense."

Kyungwon observed how Siyeon's cheeks tinted red from either embarrassment or passion, maybe both. For the first time in her life she felt as if she had someone she could relate to, someone she could open up to about the secret that she had thought was something too dark, sinful, wretched to share with anyone else. She couldn't help the way her gaze clouded gratefuly with tears, clenching her jaw as her best attempt to not let them fall in public. Siyeon turned her head, ready to say something else, but immediately halted when she took in her state.

"Unnie, what's wrong? Oh my god I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?" Siyeon stood from her seat and rushed to her, jerking her seat so she was facing her.

"N-no, I..." Kyungwon shook her head, trying to rid herself of the tears. "I just -"

The younger girl frowned in confusion, reaching to touch her face to wipe the tear threatening to spill. "I don't understand, unnie-" Her words cut off when the older girl stood from her seat and pulled her into a hug, enveloping her with her arms as if she were her only lifeline.

The expanding feeling building up in her chest could have been described as relief, consolation, happiness. It made her shoulders drop the weight that they had been previously carrying, feeling as if the burden had been taken off and now she could live a little more peacefully. The sudden overwhelming feeling of warmth spread throughout her, sending a carefree laugh out of her. Luckily for her, she managed to keep her emotions in check and as she pulled away, she gave Siyeon one of the biggest smiles she could.

"Siyeon-ah," Kyungwon grinned, carefully brushing the younger girl's ruffled hair back into place. "you're a wonderful person, did you know that?"

The pink haired girl gave her a judgemental look, though quickly wrapped her arms around her waist loosely. "Unnie, I think you're a strange person." She replied, though Kyungwon saw the way her brown eyes had warmed up at the comment. Perhaps she had underestimated the girl; she was a lot smarter than what she usually liked to let on.

"Yah! Love birds!" A voice called, most likely directed towards them seeing as they were the only other people by the cafe. "Come over here, you're making me feel sick!"

Kyungwon released Siyeon enough for them to be able to walk, but kept her arm around the smaller's shoulders in a way to thank her. "Shut up, Yebin-unnie, you're jealous just because you can't get any from Minkyung-unnie!" Siyeon shot back, laughing at the offended face of the girl sitting on the swings while being pushed by Yewon (the girl was probably threatened with the 'unnie authority').

Kyungwon and Siyeon cackled as Yebin attempted to coolly jump of the swing mid-motion but ended up tripping up on the wrong footing and later getting hit by the seat once it came back again. Yewon joined in, though making sure that the older girl was okay by rubbing the back of her head lovingly. Yebin's loud whining attracted the attention of the other girls and soon enough Nayoung made her way over to the two with a bothered look on her face, Kyulkyung close behind her as she kept a hold of the eldest's jacket.

"What happened?" The voice that had appeared beside her made her jump into Siyeon, garnering the youngest's attention.

Kyungwon looked at Minkyung with wide eyes, having forgotten that the only reason why she was sitting at the cafe in the first place was because the girl had wanted to use the bathroom and get a smoothie. It also didn't help that the girl looked very, very unfairly beautiful today with her slightly curled hair tied up in a high ponytail and blushed cheeks, courtesy of the biting cold. She raised her eyebrows expectantly, an amused smirk on her face as she observed Kyungwon's flustered state.

"Yebin was trying to be cool and she fell off the swing." Siyeon stepped in, saving her once again. She had a bright grin on her face, probably feeling very satisfied when watching her unnie writhe in pain all over the park floor, but Kyungwon knew she was up to something when she shot her a quick wink.

Minkyung giggled, shaking her head as Yebin's loud wail scared off a couple of birds. "I swear, that girl is so stupid sometimes." She said fondly, a soft expression on her face as she watched said girl. Kyungwon bit her lip, trying to contain the sudden urge to steal away Minkyung's attention so it would be on her.

Siyeon hummed deviously, wrapping her other arm around Kyungwon's waist again and cuddling up to her. "Unnie, do you know what Kyungwon-unnie said when I asked her to pick someone to be her girlfriend?" She asked smugly, watching as Minkyung interestedly raised her eyebrows and gave them her full attention. Kyungwon bit her lips and discretely pinched Siyeon's side.

"What did she say?" Minkyung asked, glancing at her with a curious expression. 

"I didn't-" Kyungwon tried, but got cut off by the younger girl.

"She said that it was either me, Eunwoo-unnie or you." Siyeon replied quickly, not giving her a chance to deny a conversation that never happened in the first place. "But it's obviously me, because me and unnie would obviously make the cutest couple."

Minkyung raised an eyebrow, obivously entertained by Siyeon's confident jest. "Really, now?" Kyungwon grimaced, scared that her crush was going to outright deny her feelings without even realising it. "I find it hard to believe that Kyungie would date midgets like you, but if that's what makes you happy, Siyeon-ah..." The tallest laughed lightheartedly at Siyeon's 'excuse me' expression, linking her arm through Kyungwon's, who was too flustered to even move, and tugged her away from the youngest's grip. "...now, me and Kyungwon are going to enjoy our smoothies."

Siyeon pouted as Minkyung dragged Kyungwon away from her, though shot the brunette a victorious wink before running off to pester another one of her unnies. Kyungwon watched as she made a beeline to where Eunwoo, Sungyeon and Kyla played by the slide, hearing her call Eunwoo's name so loudly that she could hear from where she stood. At their most recent conversation. Kyungwon couldn't help but wonder if the pink haired devil had discovered her because she was being too obvious or because she could relate to her.

"Kyungie, buy me a smoothie." Minkyung ordered, not even bothering with the aegyo and directly commanding her to buy her seomthing.

Kyungwon frowned at her, her hand unconsciously moving to her trenchcoat's pocket where her wallet lay. "What? No, you have your own money." She widened her eyes when the other huffed frustratedly and reached around her to stick her hand into the pocket where her money was. "Yah! No, stop! This is theft!"

Minkyung laughed, pushing herself closer to get a better chance at getting the wallet and ignoring the way Kyungwon retreated to get farther away from her. Unknown to her, the brunette's face had gone completely red, the close proxemity agitating her to no ends. They reached a point where Kyungwon had no where else to go and had been backed into the side of the cafe wall, Minkyung pressing her up to the surface with the side of her body while her hands faught for the wallet. Before she could enjoy the skinship, Minkyung pulled away with a triumphant grin and her wallet in her left hand.

"You know what, knock yourself out." Kyungwon dismissed her with a lazy wave of the hand, smiling slightly as she watched Minkyung happily skip into the cafe.

Her hand went to her pocket as she waited for the girl to finish, fishing out her phone and taking a look at the mainscreen. She saw a couple of text messages from the company managers alerting them that they had to return in half an hour, one from Taewoon saying how he had another important game coming up and two from her brother. Curious as to how her brother had gotten her number after he had deleted it from his contact list, she swiped and looked at their chatroom.

[16:26] Kang Yongsoo: can you come home early today?

[16:27] Kang Yongsoo: we have to talk

The message was sent two hours ago, even though her brother was meant to be back at work by that time so it definitely gave her the feeling that something bad had happened. She quickly sent back a message asking why and if everything was okay before attending to the other messages.

By the time Minkyung came out of the cafe with a hot drink in her hands, Kyungwon was done with her phone and ready to put it back on silence. "I thought you were going to get a smoothie?" She asked, nodding at the cup clasped in her grip.

"Oh, it was getting cold so I changed my mind." Minkyung grinned sheepishly, her smile widening when Kyungwon replied with her own.

The buzz in her hand distracted her of the beautiful scenery in front of her, forcing her to rip her gaze from the ethereal sight and onto her lit up phone screen. It was an alert of a text message of her brother. Curious as to why he had so much spare time on his hands, she made sure Minkyung didn't notice her unlocking her phone. Her face fell as she read the content, completely caught off guard by it.

"Want some?" Minkyung asked innocently, not noticing the mood change.

Kyungwon sighed, hastily turning off her phone and shoving it in her inside pocket as if it would impede her from reaching it.

"Sure." She smiled gently, though feeling wary.

[18:48] Kang Yongsoo: it's about your depression. i found something to help you with it

-.-

a/n: i'm sorry this is late... school is absolute hell and my new job has me working hours on the weekend but it's probably not good to use excuses. i'll try to make it up to you somehow, but i hope you enjoy this chapter. things are starting to kick off... (this is uneditted)