Yongsun tapped her fingers against her thigh as she counted the beat to the song playing on her phone.  She stared straight ahead at the wall to wall mirrors, her face drawn.  It had been difficult hiding for the past few days.  RBW was a small company and there were only really two functional practice rooms.  If Byulyi had wanted to find Yongsun, she could have.

But she had been left alone of course.  How embarrassing.

Yongsun groaned as she buried her head into her arms, tightening her grip on her knees.  She was the leader and the unnie here.  Yongsun needed to get a grip and stop acting like she was some broken-hearted high schooler.  So what if she’d tried to kiss Byulyi and the reaction had been a hard shove and the other girl slipping into a nearby trash bin? It wasn’t like confessing she’d had feelings for her had been all bad.  Byulyi hadn’t looked her way since the confession but what did that matter?

“Stupid Moon Byulyi,” Yongsun muttered angrily into her knees. 

The song in her earphones swelled to its dramatic chorus, the music blaring in her ears in sympathy for her awkward situation.

“Y-yongsun-ssi?”

She jerked up her head, knocking it against the wall with a thud.  Yongsun tried to keep her composure as she reached behind her and cradled the now tender back of her head.

“Yes? What is it?”

“CEO Kim wanted to see you.  He said it was urgent.”

“Is it about our new comeback?”

There had been big talks about putting in a lot of time and effort into the next comeback after the success of Um Oh Ah Yeah earlier that summer.  She swiftly stopped her mind from venturing too far back to the promotional pictures that her and Byulyi had taken.  The other woman’s breath had warmed Yongsun’s cheeks as they leaned close for a fake kiss.  Her heart had hammered so loudly in her ears that she couldn’t even think about posing well for Dispatch snapping pictures behind her. 

“Um,” the staff member colored at the question, uneasily shifting from foot to foot.  “I think you should just go see him right away.  Byulyi’s with him, too.”

“O-oh?”  Yongsun rose to her feet, resisting the urge to touch comb her fingers through her greasy hair in a weak attempt at being presentable.  It didn’t matter anyway.  Byulyi had seen her in all states of disarray at the dorm already.

“Am I in trouble?” she joked half-heartedly as she walked past the staff member.  The lack of a response made Yongsun swallow with foreboding as she walked down the long hallway to Kim Dohoon’s office. 

She paused for a moment, listening in for any sounds.  But there was nothing.  Were Byulyi and CEO Kim just sitting in silence?  They always loved to have a go at each other whenever they were in the same room.

Tentatively she knocked on the door.

“Yongsun-ah, come in.”

With a swallow,  Yongsun entered the big office space, pausing as she saw Byulyi looking back at her with wide brown eyes.  She hated how her stomach flipped at the sight of the other woman, blonde hair curled slightly over a light blue button down.  Even bare-faced Moon Byulyi made her feel a little light-headed from how pretty she was.

“Yongsun?”

She snapped her head up to meet CEO Kim’s concerned gaze.

“S-sorry?”

“I asked if you’d like to sit down?”

Chastened, Yongsun hurried to pull out the one vacant chair, ignoring how the weight of Byulyi’s gaze burned her. 

“I brought the two of you here today because I have a proposal.  So you’re aware of the popularity of the two of you together as a couple since Um Oh Ah Yeah?”

Yongsun shifted a little uncomfortably in her chair.  Honestly it had been because of those comments constantly barraging the vapps the two of them had done together that she’d even started thinking about the possibility.  It had been mortifying recently when she’d been caught staring at Byulyi’s mouth and all the comments on the vapp had been flooded.  Byulyi had just continued smiling and ignored it all like she hadn’t minded. And so Yongsun had stupidly foolishly hoped-

“Yes. I am,” Yongsun replied steadily.

“Well the company thinks that we might be able to do something with that popularity.  Do you remember the lack of a splash the whole Dispatch catching you on a date got, Yongsun?”

“Yes.”

“It made me wonder if we could try to re-manufacture that sort of popularity but maybe with Byulyi here.  The actual Byulyi.”