When Sunmi messaged her that she was available for the evening, Seulgi of course had to wait for her at the hotel lobby she's currently staying at.

Seulgi frowned as she remembered their conversation with a grunt.The artist was being coy and Seulgi never liked surprises when it comes to Sunmi. As she looked up from her phone, Sunmi had exited the elevator and her footsteps became lighter upon seeing her.

"Hey." Seulgi stood up as she strode past a few passersby to embrace the older.

"Hey back." The hug tightened a bit before Sunmi leaned back and pecked her lips. Her hands still wrapped around Seulgi's shoulders, with a familiar smile on her lips. 

"Shall we go?"


It was weird seeing Sunmi and Wendy in one place. They had met through Facetime when Seulgi first introduced Wendy to Sunmi and they followed each other on Instagram but that was it. 

As usual, Wendy's signature muffins could embrace people in a sense of comfort and letting their guard down. Seulgi maybe dumb in many things but she knew Sunmi had become less tense than before. 

"I wish I can eat this everyday."

Wendy smiled widely at the complimented and teased the singer, "Maybe if you live with us."

"Will you let me then, Seulbear?"  Sometimes, Seulgi hated Sunmi's jokes. Because those were serious statements masked with false cheeriness and light tone of her voice.

Seulgi replied with a light hearted tone, "If you can live here in New York, be my guest." 

"Cruel, I mean when you come back to Seoul. You don't plan to stay here forever, do you?" Sunmi still didn't give up and push forward. She still looked at her without moving away from Seulgi's embrace on their couch, as Wendy seemingly caught on to Sunmi's little scheme.

"You will find out when I graduate." They both had known each other for years for Sunmi to sense Seulgi's discomfort with her questions. If she continued further, Seulgi might started to act differently and Seulgi knew Sunmi didn't want that.

"How's your little game going along? Have you checked out your little brother's sweetheart?" The conversation had finally switched to the other subject, though Seulgi didn't like the topic.

"I haven't."

"Tsk tsk, Seulgi

She could feel the tension without admitting it openly and she knew Sunmi was also aware of it. It wasn't brand new information to Seulgi that Sunmi only became like this with her when Irene was involved. And she immediately got a sense of what had occurred. 

Irene would be working in BlackPink's design team and Sunmi is one of their selected artists. They must have met. Cutthroat challenges of Business Industries where Seulgi had to constantly prove herself, experiences had honed her instincts to get a good sense of many things. 

Sunmi would obviously have something on her sleeves and Seulgi would just have to pay around to avoid the deathtrap. It's just a matter of catching up and keeping Sunmi distracted by being more expressive, more adventurous and made her remember that currently Sunmi has the most of Seulgi.

She always had.

Physically.

Just like the old days.

Where other parties were involved in this so-called Seulgi's sad love story cliché.

Seulgi moved all those momentary relapse of having blissful times with a certain senior at the back of her mind. And here she thought they had come a long way, not to let past and future get involved in their unlabeled relationship.But as it turned out, past always can reset everything and just a single coincidence would bring them torpedoing back to square one. 






"She's very different." 

"Huh?" Seulgi was washing the dishes and Wendy made herself present at the kitchen, leaving their guest in the living room. 

"She's different. I didn't know you'd go for that type of women." 

"I don't have a type."

"Sure you don't."

"..." 

"Am I stopping you from what you really want?"

Wendy must be talking about their conversation earlier when Sunmi made a comment about her situation with her brothers. Wendy was all for mediating peace while Sunmi wanted her to be more aggressive.

"You can't just keep getting played by them knowingly. Make them feel that bitterness you felt."  Sunmi made her thoughts known when the conversation became intense. 

"When you keeping treating fire with fire, it will never end, Unnie. There's more to life than that."

"So, you are the one who's making Seulgi to be peaceful."Sunmi commented, finally seeing why Seulgi never did anything that effective to ruin her brothers when she could, "You also know that her parents would spare no effort in ruining her life once they find out about her."

"They are still her parents. If her brother gets humiliated publicly in their circle, Aunty will get hospitalized. And if Aunty does, Uncle Kang will also follow."

"I get it, Wendy. But after all she went through,have you asked Seulgi about what she wants?"

Her parents were the main reason for Seulgi and Euigon to keep up with Kang Hyunggu's antics.But her youngest brother was reaching his limits and Seulgi was buying time with a few deals between them, buying him stuffs he wanted and working with a few companies he contacted whether she liked it or not.

But Seulgi herself knows hate is not the solution to the problem.

"Son Wendy, you know me better than to doubt yourself. You save me instead of drowning me."

Wendy was the one who stayed by her side and always stopped her from doing something she would regret, giving her alternative suggestions and a different perspective to look at life.

She felt a gentle squeeze to her arm from her cousin and smiled in response. Words don't really matter between them anymore. And she was really lucky to have the best friend in her cousin.

"I just want you to know that you don't owe anyone ANYTHING."

Somehow, Seulgi believed Wendy was not talking about her family this time. 




_____




"Oh, you're coming with me back to my room?" 

Seulgi relished in surprising Sunmi from time to time when she least expected it. The older woman would always be happy and over the moon and it made Seulgi feel a bit powerful. 

Keeping the world famous K-pop artist on her toes.

"You don't want me to?" , Seulgi made Sunmi think she would just accompany the singer back to the hotel and meet her again at the concert.

Sunmi answered the question by dragging Seulgi close to her as she kissed her cheek. They were now walking to the hotel lift, their heads fitting each other like puzzles. "What about your parents?"

"Wendy will cover for me."

"You're experienced in sneaking out now."

Seulgi chuckled at the latter's quip, "I had a good teacher."

"It's been a long time we slept together without ."

"Are you complaining?"

"Definitely not." 

"Oh."

"Hmm?" Seulgi hummed as Sunmi unlocked her phone with one hand, her eyes focusing in their reflection on the lift's glass doors. 

"Our little Chichu got tagged on Insta." Sunmi showed her phone screen to Seulgi who had to squint at the poorly lighted photo.

Hah.

It's been a while since she saw Suho again. Clever Jennie knew how to treat her staffs to the dinner to do her bidding. New York team was now with Jennie, Jisoo, Kai, Suho and a few other people at a flashy Korean restaurant, having a dinner that will cost a fortune.Jisoo obviously was sporting a frown masked as a smile with a twitch on her lips.

Suho must have been friends with Kai because Seulgi never saw her in Jisoo's previous photos. And most of them would have to work for K-Con the next day. Irene was also sporting a smile while putting up a peace sign with her tiny fingers. The ever prepared Irene Bae Joohyun.

What's with all those timings? She escaped to New York just to leave all those behind. One moment, she let her guard down, all had come rushing back, destroying her peace within these walls.

All that left was misery, pain, suffocation and anger to herself.

And so, looking at the photo of Irene with a very happy Suho sitting close to her, she felt immediate pity for Jisoo who was at the dinner in person with Jennie looking very happy with whatever Kai was whispering her ear.

Seulgi felt like she was in high school all over again with that damn wretched scene in front of her at that cursed party and a familiar feeling tarted to carve its way into her heart. 

And carving can never be not painful. 



______

Joohyun's POV
 

Everything  was  familiar to Joohyun. She knew because she only felt this a thousand times with Sunmi. The churning anxiety in her stomach, the ringing in her head and numbing suffocation in a mere presence of Sunmi. 

She tried her best to focus on the task at hand as she and her colleague dressed up their final artist for the day, Sunmi. She was going to be the artist before the last boy group to close the show on the second day of K-Con. Obviously, she was going to be wearing one of their very best clothes on her body as she rocked the stage.

Luckily, Sunmi was also busy with her own preparation and rehearsal for the stage so they only shared a brief greetings before getting to work. Irene had also been tired from yesterday concert and following up the orders that accumulated after the live concert and styling artists before Sunmi while warding off unwanted pick-up lines from a few male singers.

All that left was putting thousands dollars worth necklace on the singer's flawless collarbone.

"Can you change the necklace with this one?"  Irene looked at the box in Sunmi's hands; a diamond encrusted necklace with 14K gold 'S' with ruby rose staring back at her. It was totally Sunmi.

But, Sunmi didn't mention anything about wanting to try this necklace during their meeting.

"But-"

"This necklace is very special to me. I want to commemorate this moment." Irene watched silently as Sunmi held the necklace with care, her love for the necklace was obvious.

"It's not easy to perform at K-Con as a female solo artist you know, much less chosen by BlackPink to wear their clothes."

Irene couldn't help but feel like helping out her old friend with her wishes. She's very much aware of hardships that female artists have to go through and with Sunmi's strong  and no-nonsense personality, it was sure she would have had it worse."Okay. Can I pair this with that choker then? I'm sure this will stand out."

"Work your magic, Joohyunnie."



Now they were at the backstage, checking everything was in order, BlackPink would be advertised, Sunmi would dance accordingly as the choreographed movements to showcase their products more.It was nearly the time for Sunmi to go out and rock the stage. 

Joohyun couldn't help but feel proud at herself for being able to dress her friend. Sunmi looked commanding, intimidating and sultry. The velvety choker around her neck complimented the y red Gucci bodysuit that the singer was wearing, her own necklace was going to shine under the white lights and dark exalted hall of Madison Square Garden.

"Thank you, Joohyun-ah." Sunmi thanked Joohyun sincerely as she checked herself again on the mirror for the final time.

"You look really y and ready, Sunmi. And that necklace is really beautiful."

"Thank you, it was specifically made for me by someone." 

Joohyun suddenly didn't want to hear the story anymore.But she couldn't just pack up and run away. Sunmi was clearly radiating as she looked at the necklace on her neck,her face broadcasting love and affection, and J