PROLOGUE

A cool breeze reaches her delicate face as she closes her eyes to take it in. Her new garden is not as big as those of mansions at the top of hills, but it’s sufficient to breath pure air and be thankful for this moment as it is.

She’s free. They are free. At the same time, they are finally together. It couldn’t feel righter.

When Kim Yerim’s dating rumors spread, she feared it’d ruin her career. It didn’t. Her members already knew about this idol she was going out with and sort of approved him. At first, everyone did. Then Saeron didn’t and neither did Sooyoung.

Speaking of Park Sooyoung, she was in a public relationship of her own. She wasn’t going to make it public, but SM had insisted on doing so to take media’s attention off another “scandal” that had nothing to do with Red Velvet. Just another normal day at SM, she guessed.

Unnie line was absent. Being excused of promotions for that year, Wendy had decided to spend some quality time with her parents back in Canada, while Seulgi took it as an opportunity to finally travel around the American continent. As the lonely Bear she is, she’d intended to do it by herself, but somewhere along planning and revealing her plans to Juhyun and Seungwan, both decided to join her as soon as Wendy left her parents’ home.

Yeri, on the other hand, has never been busier. She was spending her time working harder on her solo career, treating every opportunity as her last. She spent most of her days inside SM headquarters and at night would proceed to go back to their dorm, only to be met by silence. Sooyoung had rented an apartment at the other side of Seoul because according to her, it was time she had her own space. Being a fully grown-up woman, having a successful career and a boyfriend, having her own place to call home was needed. Maknae, of course, didn’t agree nor disagree.

All that loneliness and missing her roommate took Yeri’s heart. Sooyoung’s perfume could no longer be smelled in her previous bed, which Yeri pulled next to her in attempt to make it bigger. Their bathroom looked incredibly empty without her favorite unnie’s tons of lotions and make-up products. She did miss the Holy Trinity (Irene, Seulgi, Wendy), but missing Joy hurt like a hole in her heart.

It was winter when her Yeri’s first and current boyfriend came in scene. He was one of her co-stars and asked her out. He was interesting. Saeron, at first, told her there was no harm in giving him a chance – she was filming a drama and unfortunately, couldn’t meet up just as much with Yerim. A month later, she regretted pushing Yeri into the boy’s arms when the later called her crying about their horribly unstable relationship.

It was Sooyoung’s partner who suggested a double date. They haven’t seen each other ever since Sooyoung left their dorm and the older wondered why Yeri barely spoke to her anymore. Was she upset because she left their dorm? Or was she jealous because Sooyoung was dating? When did their friendship start to fall apart?

All questions made no sense. Yeri also got a relationship of her own now and to be honest, Sooyoung’s main reason to leave Red Velvet’s dorm as because Yerim seemed to busy to pay any attention to her. She’d rather feel lonely at her own place and have her boyfriend hug her during nights, even if she didn’t feel any warmer in his arms. She didn’t love him, but playing pretend with him hurt less than Yeri’s