After that fateful night in the practice room, Yeri and Jaehyun decided to make good on their promise to be friends.

Jaehyun would often text her with encouraging words and funny anecdotes on his trainee life as well as hot gossip involving their mutual friends. Meanwhile, Yeri would talk about her busy schedule, the love she already had for the fans and how she was gradually growing more comfortable with celebrity life. And of course, she would brag about her unnies doting on her and giving in to her every whim.

Despite their different personalities, they found a lot of things in common, specially when it came to their musical tastes. They would often discover new music together and Yeri couldn't really help the light blush that tinted her cheeks whenever Jaehyun sang along to the songs with his baritone voice or when they sat side by side and played the piano together.

However, they each had their bad days.

Yeri no longer read the hate comments (Jaehyun had threatened to tell Irene and have her confiscate her phone if she didn't stop) and most fans where slowly starting to acccept the fact that Red Velvet was now five. But every once in a while, she would notice a disgrunted look, the lowering of the cheers when it was her time to sing or how rapidly her line sometimes moved during fansigns. Yeri would put on a brave face and act like none of that affected her. But deep inside, she could feel her self confidence being shattered and the voice in her head saying she would never be good enough getting louder.

During those bad days, Jung Jaehyun was the only person she could find true comfort in.

It's not that Yeri didn't trust her unnies. Rather than resenting her for messing with their already stablished dynamics, the girls had welcomed her with open arms and were fiercely protective of her. It was for that very reason that Yeri didn't want to discuss her insecurities with her members. They would worry too much and she did not want to trouble them more than she already had. Sometimes one of the girls would catch a glimpse of sadness in Yeri's eyes, but she would soon brush it off and do something goofy in order to distract them. She didn't know they could hear her crying in the bathroom when she thought they were all asleep.

The same would go for her close sunbaes such as Taeyeon, Yoona, Heechul or Jonghyun. Taeyeon in particular had been furious when she heard about the comments being made about Yeri and if not for The younger girl begging her not to do it, she would've marched to the CEO's office to demand some kind of action on the company's part.

She also could not talk about this with Johnny, Haechan or Mark. They were all training diligently and anxious to debut. How could she just go and complain about the life they were trying so hard to achieve?

Talking to her family was out of the question as well. Her sisters were toddlers so they couldn't relate and her parents would simply tell her to stop this nonsense and come home. Even though they were supportive and proud of her choices, they would not tolerate having their beloved daughter being bullied by a bunch of strangers.

And that was how Jaehyun became an essential part of Yeri's life.

Even though he was just as protective as her unnies, as caring as her sunbaes and as eager to debut as her close friends, Yeri found easy to confide in Jaehyun. So it was a mystery to Yeri why it was so difficult for her to put Jaehyun into an specific category of the people in her life.

Sure, they were now "friends", but the bond she shared with Jaehyun was so different from what she had with her other friends. She cared