"God i'm DYING here. Please let me in or i'm literally gonna pee my pants." 

The sound of the toilet flushed multiple times before a hooded Yeri opened the door and flashed past a frantically knocking Joy. 

"FINALLY" said Joy as she dashed into the open door.

On her bed, Yeri fumbled clumsily through her bag before tipping out two painkillers and swallowed it dryly. She applied some tinted lipbalm to look less pale and heaved against her headboard. Irene poked her head through their door and half-shouted "10 more minutes till manager oppa reaches!" 

Yeri mustered up some strength and replied "Okay unnie! I'll tell Sooyoung unnie to hurry." 

Irene turned to smile at the maknae when she caught a glimpse of the brown medicine bottle peeking from under the blanket. 

"What is that?" Irene asked worriedly while pointing at the bottle. 

"Um..uh.." Yeri paused hesitantly. "It's for my period cramps! You know how bad mine can get right" she laughs awkwardly as she grabs the bottle and shoved it into her bag. 

Luckily for her, Irene's phone rang at that moment and she ran to the 94 liners room to hurry them up as their manager was already downstairs. In the elevator, Irene side-glanced the blonde and whispered to her that their conversation was not over. Yeri looked down at her shoes hastily and avoided any eye contact for the rest of the day. 

At 11pm, their dance practice finally ended. Seulgi laid sprawled out on the dance floor while Yeri leaned against the mirror with her head tilted back. The other members had went for their individual vocal trainings earlier and would not be done until 12am. 

"Yerms, what's going on? Your moves seem to be getting weaker and you are already out of breath after the first chorus!" Seulgi exclaimed with her eyes still closed.

"Haha i think I'm really getting old these days." Yeri replied tiredly.

Seulgi sat up and looked at Yeri. Her maknae's hair was dishevelled with fresh sweat, eyebags hanging slightly too heavy and her gaunt cheeks losing its once youthful color. 

"You know," Seulgi said slowly. "We can always push back our comeback by a couple weeks."

"Unnie-"

"I'm sure Joohyun unnie and manager oppa will agree with me seeing how exhausted you look these days."

"I..."

"Plus I get more time to practice singing the new song too. Oh my God, this song is so hard to sing when i'm dancing i literally feel my lungs explodin-"

"NO." Yeri shouted from across the room. "I..I need this unnie. Please." Tears clouded her vision as she gathered her things and ran out the room without looking back. Leaving a dumb-founded Seulgi sitting on the floor, still shocked at the maknae's sudden outburst. 

Climbing to the rooftop, she pushed the heavy metal door open with her remaining strength and stumbled onto the grassy patch. A familiar pain shot through her chest. Her heartbeat throbbed loudly as she poured out two more pills and gulped it with force. Under the cold autumn sky, she curled up tightly on the soft grass and let the numbness lull her to sleep.

"Yerimie?"