Jeongyeon is like any other person in high school, any other person in the lower parts of the social hierarchy. But unlike most, she’s never minded it one bit. She’s unlike the others who desperately try to pull their way up with broken ropes and rotten ladders, she’s unlike others who’ve at least wanted a glimpse from the higher ups, what the lower status call the gods.

She’s actually more saddened by it than anything. When she entered this school, she looked for hope for a better future, for an opportunity to use her life to help others and learn about the world. She definitely hadn’t expected to be stuck in a school which was the definition of stereotypical and no matter how much she wanted to transfer, this school somehow grabbed her back and caged her in it. Or was that just because she didn’t want to leave? At this point it was almost futile to try answer.

Well whatever it was, Jeongyeon was starting to understand the feelings of her fellow peers stuck in the bottom as some weird, magical feeling pushed out of her when she caught a rather rare glimpse of an actual angel. Yes, an actual unfortunately flirty angel who came off as a beautiful presence to whoever was invited to get graced with it.

It almost sounded wrong coming out of someone like Jeongyeon’s mouth, like a teenagers cracked voice trying to harmonize to the voices of a symphony. Her name was - wait for it - the popular, infamous, absolutely vivacious Minatozaki Sana.

Yes, the Minatozaki Sana.

“No way.”

“No ing way.”

“HAHAHA! You have a crush on the Minatozaki Sana? The flirt that the whole school is after? How miserably is that? Oh my goodness, my stomach hurts from laughing.”

Jeongyeon just sighed, what else would she expect from her best friend?

Chaeyoung couldn’t stop laughing, probably wouldn’t either just to make Jeongyeon feel worse. Of course Jeong, the one who called herself ‘the one who was never influenced by the higher ups and would never fall for their traps’ falls miserably for one the most popular, stereotypical girls in their stereotypical school.

Chaeyoung continues, wiping a laughing tear from the side of her eye, “You’re not lying right? You better not be, this is the best blackmail material right here!” She slams her hand on the table for dramatic effect. “Ha, I still can’t believe it. What happened to ‘Thy shall never fall for their foolish traps visible in daylight, thou shall never fall to them’? Here you are, with a crush on the Minatozaki Sana. With a crush on her.” Chaeyoung dramatically voices, slamming her hands on the table while laughing off her socks afterwards. At this point, the blonde’s friend could barely breathe, tears stinging her eyes accompanied by her ragged cracked laughing.

Jeongyeon sighs, massaging her stinging temples. “No Chae, I’m not lying. I’m genuinely not lying and I’m falling hard and here you are being the worst best friend by laughing at me.”

Her best friend ends with a soft giggle, still wiping excess tears that threaten to fall from the corner of her eyes.

Chaeyoung, the girl infront of her almost, almost looks like a maniac.

“I’m sorry, that- that was just too funny. So now that it’s clear - that I have a big fat crush on Im Nayeon and you have a, probably bigger, crush on Minatozaki Sana - we can both celebrate our absolutely depressing crushes on two of the most popular students of our school.” Chaeyoung proceeds to dramatically put her hands upon the smart girl’s shoulders, probably one of the smartest she’s known, and says, “this just makes everything seem more stereotypical doesn’t it?”

Jeongyeon pauses to think and realizes that she’s really fallen for this whole school’s trap. “yeah. Unfortunately.”

“Does it make you sad?”

“Kinda.”

—.—

A new member decides to join their group, her name being Kim Dahyun. A funny, out-of-this-world, definitely a little too over-estatic but nevertheless quite a smart girl. She seems to make both of their worlds brighter, and her presence is so welcomed it’s as if she was meant to be with them from the start.

And of course, Dahyun just falls as despairingly as both of them.

“So Dahyun... we see you’ve been eyeing a girl...” Jeongyeon says mysteriously, with Chaengie continuing the sentence, “a popular girl with the name Myoui Mina. So, are we right or are we right?”

Both girls were trembling from excitement, putting Dahyun fully into the spotlight.

Dahyun grumbles, “Right.”

The two girls immediately high-five each other, shooting a playful grin at the oldest maknae out of the three of them. Though this was meant to be a sad occasion, an occasion meant to symbolize the upcoming pain of wanting someone you can never have, Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung played it off as a happy one instead. Just so they could see Dahyun smile instead of fret over a useless crush that would probably never happen.

“Don’t worry Dubu, we’ve also got crushes on those popular girls. You already know them so...yeah. I still wonder why I like her in the first place...” Chaeyoung puts her face upon her chin, looking up to the ceiling, daydream-like. ”But I guess no one really needs a reason to like the popular girls do they?” She shrugs, lifting up all their moods.

“Yeah, they don’t really.” Jeongyeon agrees.

Even with a bittersweet moment like this resting over their heads, consuming the atmosphere, smiles remain on their faces - although the smiles are pitiful and full of sadness, it’s alright. It’s always alright between them.

She hates unrequited love for making them all feel this way.

“You guys wanna grab a coffee or something?” Dahyun says, desperately trying to get rid of the almost turning despondent atmosphere.

“Yeah, but tea for me.” Jeongyeon says. It’s not a surprise that Jeongyeon doesn’t like coffee, only using it whenever she needs to pull an all-nighter, as it’s bitter and sweet is definitely way better (clearly shown in the way she likes one of the sweetest girls who, according to her and other lowlives’ words, is Minatozaki Sana).

Even worse is the fact that the nearby café they decided to rest in was one playing a sad song, that also accompanied by drizzling rain and dark skies.

The universe just loved to make their lives sad, didn’t it?

Fortunately, the song eventually switched to a song that is actually one of Jeongyeon’s personal favorites: Every day, every moment by a rising artist called Paul Kim. It was soothing, extremely fitting for a lone coffee shop that rested by an unknown street. Though it was alone and far, a few passionate individuals seemed to love the simplicity that coated the shop and the raw aroma of roasted coffee beans clashing with fresh cheesecakes, a scent that only it ever created.

That’s why she loved this place. Maybe, she would assume, more than her love for her mother (but that was always pretty small, if she was honest). Maybe a better thing to compare her love for this shop was her friends. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how much they were different, her friends and the coffee shop, yet how much they collided together to make this perfect get-together place for her friends and herself. It was calming and unloved and lonely, just like how her friends were - minus the calming part, but they could be that too sometimes. It was small and in the corner of an unknown street, just like how they sat in the corners of the cafeteria, surrounded by other unpopular, unknown, unrecognizable people. But it was different too. It was small and echoey, not exactly the best combination for their loud, boisterous voices. But somehow, even being so small and unknown so they could talk freely about anything... they never really did. This was the shop that had that kind of an effect on you, an effect to make you be quiet and actually reflect on life for once because being a normal student with a hectic life doesn’t really give you a chance to does it?

(And Jeongyeon realized that she was doing exactly that. She also realized that she should stop falling for the simple traps of life, but in the end even she herself can’t help it.)

Unfortunately, as always, something has to ruin the peaceful moment. And that something is Chaeyoung.

“, don’t look but three o clock to your left, there’s something that you might be interested in.”

Though Jeongyeon would have slapped the youngest girl’s head for ruining such a rare sanctifying moment, she was still in daze from the songs calming features and the utter tranquility that revolved around the shop, so it was safe to say that Jeongyeon had no intentions of that right now. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t annoyed.

“What?” She snapped.

“Minatozaki.”

Her soft soil brown eyes widened. “What?”

Dahyun repeated monotonously, “Minatozaki and her gang at three o’ clock. Don’t snap your head there or they might notice us.”

“Think they already have, they just don’t care.” Chaeyoung muttered dejectedly. “After all we’re down here and they’re up there.”

Dahyun shook her head to try rattling out the negative thoughts now implanted by the girl sitting next to her. “Hey Jeong, why don’t you order for us? Caramel sundae for me and strawberry milkshake for Chaengie! Get desert of any kind too.” Dahyun retracted. “Wait isn’t that a double desert? Whatever.”

Jeongyeon, being the eldest, usually took responsibility for even simple matters such as just ordering, Dahyun didn’t even need to ask as by that time she was already on her feet, directing herself towards the plain brown counter. Jeongyeon was still surprised to say at least, firstly because ‘how is this place so empty?’ and secondly because the Minatozaki and her squad was here, in such a secluded place.

“I’d like a green tea, a caramel sundae and a strawberry milkshake, three random cheesecakes too, if that’s possible.” Jeongyeon said fluently like she had rehearsed it in the corners of her mind.

The cashier raised her eyebrows up in question. “Coming right up ma’am, but are you sure you won’t regret the cheesecakes you get?”

The blonde haired girl waved her hand loosely with the accompaniment of a shaking head. “Cheesecakes can never taste bad.”

Jeongyeon sensed a presence near her but never really bothered to look up - more like struggled to keep her head down - to see who was beside her because literally the only people who were there in the café were her friends and them. And that meant if she looked up and dared to peek at the glowing presence beside her, then she would be met with either the side profile of Minatozaki the flirt, Im Nayeon the narcassist, the Myoui or Black Swan, Park Jihyo the impeccable goddess, Chou ing Tzuyu or the holy dancing queen Momo. (She did say that she would never ache for a glimpse of them, but now it seems her body begs to but her mind is firm to keep her promise.)

A giggle erupts from the person beside her and holy damn because it sounds like the heavens above just erupted with love and happiness. “That’s true, cheesecakes are the best aren’t they?”

Her body takes over and her mind fails to function as her head fleets to catch a glimpse and-

Holy .

Yes that’s right, holy .

Damn anything in this world that dare ruins this extraordinary moment because holy mother of gods, this person right infront of her is a living goddess. A living princess right in blind sight. With her pure blonde hair that reflected the light from the stained lightbulb above them, and her eyes and body and- oh god her ethereal eyes.

Her eyes were the literal definition of aesthetics and beauty, and the highest forms of them too. Once you stare into them, your stuck, stuck in its trance, its nature-like beauty, its velvety flow with flicks of light brown scattered throughout, its everything. She’s everything.

This was the moment Jeongyeon had related most with her annoying peers at the bottom. The ones who dress up in the weirdest ‘trendy’ clothes just to get a taste of how it is to be noticed by the higher ups, the ones who trail behind the goddesses, the ones shoving everyone aside to make space for them, the ones who desperately try to fit themselves in just for one fleeting look. She could finally understand why they acted such a way just for one look, one glance, one anything. With their absolutely astounding looks and presence who wouldn’t?

Only in that moment had Jeongyeon realized how lucky she actually was when she saw her best friends’ jaws hanging from the corners of her eyes.

Dammit, what have I gotten myself into?

What really has she gotten herself into?

Say something!

“Y-yeah.” The blonde girl then realized that she had been directly infront of the counter, blocking the popular girl’s way. She shoved herself aside and swayed her hands to intertwine against her back. “I’m sorry! I must’ve been blocking your way, here you go.”

The popular blonde girl giggles again, and holy cow it sound amazing- Dammit Jeong get a hold of yourself! Jeongyeon can just imagine her friends dying of laughter, actually it’s probably happening right now, but of course she’s too busy staring at the long haired goddess to care.

“It’s no problem. Oh and actually before I completely forget, here you go!” The long haired beauty quickly passes the dumbstruck girl a flyer, only to look back at the cashier, who also unsurprisingly seems to be in a trance by the girl infront of her.

Jeongyeon scurries off before she gets locked in the pattern of Sana’s hypnotic eyes again, only to be greeted with laughter and questions from her friends.

“You looked like a freaking deer stuck in headlights!” Dahyun boomed while laughing, not caring whether the other party who were also in the shop heard or not.

The blonde harshly clasped both her hands over Dahyun’s loud mouth and shushed her. She had always wondered why was it a deer and not any other animal, but this was not the time to be thinking of such, this was the time to shut Dahyun’s mouth so they don’t hear.

“Goddammit Dahyun can’t you be quiet for once? They’re right over there.” Jeongyeon stares at her seriously and Dahyun swears she’s never seen the older so stressed. The tofu girl being herself just laughs it off.

Chaeyoung meanwhile looked frozen, not physically but seems to give up on her and Jeongyeon wishes that Dahyun could act the same way for once.

The tofu girl spots a flyer dangling on the corners of a Jeongyeon’s fingers, ready to slip off and join the wind’s adventure to the unknown. She speaks up before it’s too late. “Hey! What’s that in your hand? Lemme see,” She snatches the flyer right out of the older’s hand and reads it feverishly while muttering out the important words contained in the plain-looking flyer.

“So... a party eh?” Dahyun says as she turns over the flyer and hands it back.

Jeongyeon looks down to the flyer that her friend read through and wonders, why would Sana ever hand out flyers, and a party flyer? Do those exist?

Chaeyoung finally snaps out of her fantasy and looks at both of her friends. “A party...? Are you sure you guys wanna go?”

Jeongyeon’s never been to a proper frat party, like ever. She’s seen them in movies, and watched them on shows but there’s something just strange about the thought of parties and rowdy people clashing everywhere. Maybe it’s just the fact that she’s pretty much not that social, or it could be because she hates the stench of alcohol. Just that lingering smell of stink, it always gets to her especially since her mom used to be an alcoholic. Thank god she didn’t live with her anymore.

Dahyun replies by shrugging. “I mean... it seems harmless, and Sana was the one to hand the flyers out so it really must be a big deal, right? I think there’s no harm in going, what about you Jeongie?”

Jeongyeon thought about it. It was just a party after all, a simple party with rowdy people and an alcoholic stench, but it was still fun. Parties were always a way too loosen up, to forget the problems that plague your mind, to be set free and do anything you want without people judging you. Parties were fun, and she reckoned that’s what she needed right now, some fun.

She nods her head. “Yeah I’ll go, I’ll get to see Sana anyways.”

—.—

So, here they were at what people called the ‘party of the century’. And here Jeongyeon was regretting even coming with the sharp scent of alcohol everywhere, with thriving mindless bodies dancing around to create a maze, with her friends leaving her like the jerks they are.

Maybe Jeongyeon should’ve just hid in the toilet.

Another push and pull from the mindless crowd, getting her more lost than she already is. A faint voice from outside could be heard vomiting, while others of people shouting over the crowd or rubbing skin from all the dancing, thriving as if they were zombie.

Scratch that, she definitely should’ve just hid in the toilet; staying at home wouldn’t even work since her friends would drag her to the party nevertheless. It was futile to try anything at this point, she thinks, with the crowd slashing her about like she was stuck in a wave on the surge of becoming a tsunami. It was tiring, and she could barely stand up with the constant moving, but she’d rather rip her way through the maze to potential safety than stay stuck in this random place.

And she did just that.

With her hands ready while she ducked her head down, she prepared herself to run through the crowd, that would be way easier than just walking her way through while being flung around like a mindless piece of tinfoil. With her legs pumped up from the newly found courage and her hands right in place, she raced her way through the small crevices of human bodies.

She could see the end in sight, and the difference shocked her. Just a few more steps and she would reach near the counter of a kitchen, where a few teens were talking leveraged upon seats and others watched the dancing crowd. She never thought a kitchen counter could bring so much happiness in her.

Jeongyeon smiled. She was free, and surprisingly it was easy to be free too.

Maybe she should be more courageous more often.

Well, now that she’s finally out of that hell hole, she can actually breathe and do something. But thinking again, she decides against it because there isn’t really much to do than dance or play mindlessly shaming games with strangers you barely know - and she didn’t want that at all, so bathroom it is.

She searches for the closest bathroom while clasping both of her hands tightly around her borderline deaf ears. She wondered how people even managed to keep their ears in check after parties like this, where the bass was booming through your body and the music ripping through your ears. Is this what people derived comfort and fun from nowerdays? Because to her it seemed more than strange that people were willing to do this almost every alternating weekend.

(But after all she was here for the most petty reason, just to see her crush once again. Jeongyeon tells herself to stop, stop fretting over a crush that will never happen, but here she still is convincing herself that she’s searching for the bathroom when in reality she’s just looking for a girl.

Pathetic right?)

She continues to walk to the closest bathroom until she realizes that she has no clue to where it could actually be. When she came here, she remembered it being somewhere on the second floor, was it to the right or left again? Or was it straight? Jeongyeon sighs when she realizes that she’s not going to get anywhere with this, thus deciding to open random doors because well... she’s bored out of her mind.

Being a person who had grown up to see her mother affected negatively by these small parties with alcohol, which soon turned her into a raging obsessive addict, she grew quite scared of alcohol. Not the alcohol itself, but it’s effects. She didn’t want that happening to her or her friends - but she knew her friends could and would control themselves - or else she would just take the matters into her own hands.

Thus, mindlessly opening doors to only embarrassingly see half undressed people or even worse, she stumbled across the last door which she prayed was empty unlike the others she had saw.

Maybe her newfound courage wasn’t such a good thing after all.

“Please, please, please be empty so I can have my sanity back!” She whisper-shouts to herself as she takes the door handle and pushes it open, only so slightly, that not even a noise could be heard.

And she pokes an eye through, only to see the coast clear. (Thank god, Jeongyeon thinks.)

That is until she sees a male body moving slowly back, almost sensually but with the small slit she’s looking through, almost nothing but a blur of dark colors and the unhelpful candle light was visible.

And then a girl. At first the body was unrecognizable, just like the male’s, but she had remembered seeing a figure like that before. Jeongyeon just didn’t remember where.

“Why do you suddenly act like this?” The male voice speaks up, deep and smooth, resting the palm of his hands against her hips. “Just yesterday you were pushing me away.” He continues to rub the skin of the girl’s hip while Jeongyeon is ready to scurry off, but her courage and determination keeps her planted onto the floor, watching the shadows.

“Today’s not yesterday. Now, shut up and kiss me.” The now recognizable girl’s voice comes into range as she throws the boy onto the bed and catches his lips in a harsh kiss.

And, of course, Jeongyeon gasps which catches both of their attentions.

Dammit.

Jeongyeon fleets for her life, her hands flying about for safety while her legs continue to sprint in an attempt to hide in the nearest shelter. She doesn’t really know why she’s running so fast, it’s not like she’s going to get beat up for this, however the rush of adrenaline keeps her running, because she needs to and, and -

“Oof! What the hell, watch where you’re going- Oh Jeongie! There you a-“

Jeongyeon shuts the shorter girl’s mouth and pulls her into the store room conveniently placed right beside them as she hears the deep voice nearing with thumping footsteps. It was a good thing that she ran, now that she thinks about the angry voice she can hear approaching.

Maybe her newfound courage wasn’t such a good thing.

“Hey, it’s alright. It was probably just a ert, we’ll lock the door this time.” The girl’s voice says sweetly.

Chaeyoung’s eyes reaches the top of her forehead, conveying clear worry to Jeongyeon.

They hear disappearing footsteps from outside, before both falling out of the cramped, dark store room.

“Hey, are you alright? Let’s just forget that Sana and him were there alright?” Chaeyoung comforts, placing a hand on her shoulder to which the older places back down.

“I’m not concerned on that right now Chae.” She breathes out before turning to her shorter friend.

Her eyes are so close to rolling of their sockets.

“What happened to your hair?!”

“Chill unnie, I was just dared to cut it. That’s it.” Chaeyoung says nonchalantly while Jeongyeon tries to breathe properly.

The older regains herself, not before sighing. “Well, at least you look good.”

Now that all her fear from the previous minute had faded away, a sudden pain gnawed at the pit of her stomach, crawling its way through her body to shoot through her heart. It felt like someone was slowly draining the life of her, one by one ripping apart the emotions in her body until there was none left.

She didn’t want to admit that Sana was the cause of it.

‘Why did it have to be Sana of all the girls I could fall in love with? The girl who clearly is just a player?’ Jeongyeon asks herself.

“Thanks Jeong. I think we should leave now, it’s getting late.”

Thank god Chaeyoung wasn’t able to see through Jeongyeon’s facade, and even if she did (she did, by the way, shown by her eyebrows furrowing and frown deepening) she hadn’t said anything to Jeongyeon’s delight.

Jeongyeon nodded. “Let’s search for Dahyun first.”

—.—

A week later from the unfortunately unforgettable party (well its only really unforgettable since the incident took place), she dreams about a girl, a girl who she seems to grow up with, have children with and spend her life with. Normal teenage dreams that teenagers have.

But that kept her wondering.

She didn’t really know Sana. Like, at all. She had only ever talked to her once, if it can even be considered that since it was a miserable attempt at talking in a coffee shop, and she had only known Sana by the words of others. She also realizes that she isn’t calling the goddess by her last name either like she used to, is she mentally getting closer to her?

She sighs heavily before her train of thought continues, fiddling with the ends of her fingers.

Does she really like Sana? Or does she only like the physical aspects of her, the parts that she shows to the whole world? For all Jeongyeon knows, Sana could be another who would judge her, Sana could be like a bully to her, Sana could be anything.

Her dreams always portrayed Sana as this person who was happy, easily excitable and she was kind. She always got along with Jeongyeon and tried her best to stay happy despite the situations. She had always helped Jeongyeon, and in turn Jeongyeon would help her or treat her with a gifts. She was a simple girl who wanted a simple life just like Jeongyeon.

But of course, that was just her dream. Just her persona of Minatozaki Sana.

‘Do I really like Sana?’ she questions herself. ‘Or am I in love with the person I’ve made her to be?’

Jeongyeon knew the answer deep down, but she refused to acknowledge it. Just because it’s all a dream, doesn’t mean that Sana can’t be the same in real life, or maybe the Sana she learns is even better. Maybe she’s more understanding, maybe she has many more hidden talents, and maybe, just maybe, she would like the dork back and wouldn’t be judgmental.

But that what’s she feared the most, that she would be like the others.

After all, they were in the nineties.

—.—

Jeongyeon was shocked, more than reasonably so, when her two most trusted friends were dragging her mercilessly through the empty hallways to reach a music room, a music room that brought back memories of her younger years, but that wasn’t the right thing to think of right now. Right now she was confused as to why she was being dragged into a music room in the first place.

Don’t tell me...

“You did not.” Jeongyeon denies.

“You guys did not just.”

Both of the youngsters awkwardly laugh, shuffling around.

“Tell me you guys did not just sign me up for the talent show!”

Dahyun sighs exasperatedly and rolls her eyes. “Come on! We all have such great musical talents and it’d be cool to show it to the school and perform with real instruments!”

“I know you play the bass guitar unnie!” Chaeyoung butts in.

“And you have the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard Jeongie!” Dahyun adds.

Jeongyeon’s eyebrow spasms, her anger showing on her face. “Guys, no one even cares about us, we only have one week to practice, and I don’t want to embarrass myself on stage!”

Chaeyoung crosses her arms. “I know you’ve wanted to be a star unnie. Why don’t you give it a try?”

“No. Never! I’ll completely embarrass us!”

Dahyun starts to pout, with Chaeyoung joining and using her cute puppy eyes too. And the older falls for it.

“Five meals,” Jeongyeon demands with her eyes slightly sharpened, “Five meals is what you owe me, Kim Dahyun and Son Chaeyoung.”

Dahyun and Chaeyoung both eagerly shake the older hands, and Jeongyeon can barely keep the smile off her face with her friends’ cute outburst of happiness. They both grab her hands, dragging her deeper into the nostalgic music room to find the dark blue bass guitar that Jeongyeon used to sing with.

Chaeyoung whoops when she finds it, throwing a fist up into the air while passing the dark blue bass guitar right into Jeongyeon’s hands, where they always belonged.

She remembers her memories with this wistful instrument. The times she was filled with jealously watching others take the precious item away, or admiring them for playing so magically and effortlessly. She remembers stumbling across it, being thrown to her small, chubby hands as a discarded instrument no one wanted. Everyone wanted the drums, the piano, or the romantic guitar that so many boys used to woo the girls. But she had the bass guitar, the instrument that buzzed throughout songs, with that low, deep vibe that hummed into her chest and poured it with fascination and love.

It was her first love, and she fell hard.

Even if it marred her young, innocent hands from incessant plucking, even if it left her fingers with deep red marks from the harsh pressing of her weak hands, she continued to play it. Even if it left her voice sore throughout her evening, leaving her to write down her words onto paper, she continued to fall in love with it. It didn’t look like her love would stop growing.

It was the best way to fight of her abused life back then, after all.

She snapped out of her reverie as soon as a distant shouting registered in her brain.

“Hey Jeongie! Stop daydreaming about Minatozaki and join us will ya?” Dahyun snorted in the background while Chaeyoung was shouting into the ears of poor Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon, always being the one interrupted from her peaceful thoughts, looks at Chaeyoung with an annoyed face before giving up and sighing. “Well, at least tell me what song we’re performing. And I wasn’t even thinking about her.”

“What about... Photograph? Sounds good right?”

All thoughts of the song are thrown out of the window and burned when she realizes just what’s happening.

She just agreed to be in the talent show.

Meaning that everybody in school will be there.

Including Sana.

Most of her wants to die just right there, weak and in the arms of her beloved bass guitar. But another part of herself wants to see Sana, she wants to see Sana’s face looking back at her with the same love heart eyes she contains for the other. She wants to reveal herself to Sana, show how much she’s better than all the other losers like her, she wants Sana to feel the pain of love just like her. She wants Sana to love her back, mouth agape and shocked from hearing her lover’s voice through the damaged microphones, but knowing her, she’ll probably be bored and uninterested.

Jeongyeon really hates this. She feels even worse for Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung’s practically been in love with Nayeon ever since they entered this school, but the older never even understood why she did. Tzuyu or Mina seemed more like a perfect fit of what Chaeyoung wanted, a peaceful girl with soft features, which is practically the opposite of Im Nayeon. But Chaeyoung was always a mystery, writing poems at ungodly hours, drawing sketches of what she calls ‘imperfectly perfect’ objects and sceneries, most of them being Im Nayeon herself. Both Im and Chaeyoung are so different, Chae knows this, yet she still managed to fall right in love for the latter. It surprised Jeongyeon when she found out that it wasn’t Mina or Tzuyu, or even just someone like Jihyo, but the loud, nutty Im Nayeon.

It was surprising how they were treated so similarly to idols here, Jeongyeon always wondered if they enjoyed their lives so high up with unlimited attention stuck onto them. Was it nice to have so much attention? Jeongyeon never agreed, but she despised the idea of attention in the first place.

As much as attention was a bad thing, they never really asked for it. It’s not like they got popular gradually, working hard to be noticed, one day they had just... popped out like that and suddenly everybody was down their throats, grasping to be a part of them or cornering them for gossip and news.

It was sadder the more that she thought about it, they were unwillingly put into pedestals as goddesses, all eyes on them for hope and gossips; but one mistake from either of the six and their whole opulent world would come smashing down into flames, surrounded by haters from their mistake. It was a lose-lose situation either case, unless they had actually wanted the fame they had.

What were their life like children? Were they also previously worshipped like they are currently, or did they live normal lives with normal memories? Were they from rich families, middle class or poorer backgrounds? So many damn unanswered questions she had, but it’s not like she needed to know anyways.

Meanwhile, Chaeyoung and Dahyun were staring at Jeongyeon with absolute disbelief, because Jeongyeon has literally been looking out into space with that ‘thinker face’ plastered on her for two minutes straight.

“I just asked her if she wanted to play Photograph...” Chaeyoung murmurs while scratching her head.

Dahyun shrugs. “Yeah, let’s just go with that. I think it suits our voices anyways.”

—.—

It hadn’t even been three hours since their last practice with Photograph, not even three, and she found her feet mindlessly walking towards the nostalgic music room once more.

Barely anyone was around anymore, no more background chatter from gossiping girls or deep voices from the jocks laying against lockers, no more clicks of heels or rushing squeaks of rubber soles contacting with the ground, just silence. Pure, lasting silence.

She liked it better this way, for a change.

All that resonated through the empty, darker hallways were her soft breaths in and out, and the touches of her heels against the cold tiled floor.

She’d like to etch this memory permanently into her. It would seem strange to others, but the amount of peacefulness that dripped around her was enough to leave her dizzy with peace and serenity. It was enough to keep her mind calm and peaceful, unlike their normal state, full of analysis’s and questions of random things around her. It was a good state to sing this tender song too, now that she thinks of it.

She presses down, with the heel of her palm, against the rusted handle of the nostalgic music room. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that nostalgic hadn’t done much justice to the amount that this music room had actually affected her life (but there were better things to think about than that, like how to not embarrass yourself infront of your crush, and well... the whole entire damn school in the talent show). She left the door wide open, more than certain than no one would wander the lonely halls at a late time like this.

She picked up the dark blue bass guitar from the corner of the room and sat down before dropping it. It landed with a thud against the muscles of her thighs and her hands instinctively wrapped themselves around the instrument. She let herself smile down at it, reminiscing of old times.

She let her fingers maneuver without the need of vision, darkness filling her eyes as soon as she closed them. She wanted to be as close to music as possible now, and she wanted herself to completely drown within it.

She starts to sing.

Loving can hurt

Lovin’ can hurt sometimes,

Her smile deepens when she realizes that she does relate to the lyrics.

But it is the only thing that I know.

Whoever wrote this was definitely deep within love, but it could be any love. Family love, friendly love, love at first sight, but whatever it was, it was still love. They all varied so much, but they were all still love.

When it gets hard, you know it can get hard sometimes,

It is the only thing that makes us feel alive.

She couldn’t stop smiling, the lyrics were just too... reminiscent of her. When it was hard, when she was left by her mother as a spare punching bag, it was her friends that lead her here. Her friend’s, Chaeyoung’s, unconditional love that let her live, that mended her soul. It was Chaeyoung who would stay up countless nights, hearing her cry and soothing her, it was Chaeyoung that would make her laugh through the distress, carring her back through the endless pain, make her smile once again. It was Chaeyoung’s love that let her live, and she couldn’t owe it to anything else. It was Chaeyoung’s strong, encouraging words that echoed into her head when she was alone, making her grab her dad’s hands and running away from the cruel home. It was love, only love that let her get through her hard times.

And then Dahyun came along, with her stupid dances and her gargantuous love that she threw upon Jeongyeon, and sometimes Jeong could cry from the amount Dahyun fills her heart with happiness (but of course, she’s never going to tell her that, or else she’s going to have to relent with a teasing Dahyun). Sometimes she felt that she didn’t deserve this love, but Love was universal and it was free.

Everyone deserved it.

We keep this love in a photograph,

We made these memories for ourselves,

Where our eyes are never closing,

Hearts are never broken,

And time's forever frozen still.

And her eyes opened themselves in that exact moment, only for it to be to be frozen still.

A sharp gasp came from the girl, as she stared right into Jeongyeon with her hands clasped against . Jeongyeon stood up in shock, looking at the girl a few feet away from her, by the entrance of the music room.

What the hell is she doing here?

“Sana?”

The girl lets her hands droop back to her sides slowly, as she took a deep breath. A shy smile slowly formed onto her face, as she looked straight to the other.

“Hey Jeongyeon.”

—.—