The sound of a speeding car passing through the neighbourhood along with its loud exhaust wakes Jiyeon up from her sleep. She squints her eyes, looking at the clock on the bedside table and it reads 8am.

They are usually all sleeping at this time. She thinks, also recalling the events of their non-stop filming of the music video and photo shoots for the past two days. I’ll let them all get their well-deserved sleep for now. 

She decides that she’s going to stand up and try to prepare for breakfast so that the members can eat something when they wake up but as she tries to turn, she feels the weight on her arm that she didn’t think it was before. With her eyebrows furrowed she turns to the being that is beside her, only resulting in her brain malfunctioning. Hyunjung is sleeping beside her, peacefully in fact, with her long blonde hair sprawled on Jiyeon’s arm, her chest heaving softly. An arm was thrown on the latter’s waist and she thinks she’ll let herself bask in the warmth that is Hyunjung for at least a few minutes. 

Her free hand raises unconsciously, combing the older girl’s hair back into place, and a smile plasters on her lips. Her eyes stop on Hyunjung’s lips, and she tries to give herself a mental slap.  Not now, Jiyeon. You can’t do this.

She releases a sigh, and stops her ministrations. She gets an extra pillow on her side and slowly puts Hyunjung’s arm that was on her waist around it, and she slowly moves away. She kneels near the bed, and carefully places a peck on the older girl’s forehead, and smiles slowly. And when she’s done fixing the blanket on top of Hyunjung so she doesn’t get cold when she wakes up, she leaves the room with clothes on her hand and gives Hyunjung a lingering look.

After what seemed like five minutes, the sound of water running can be heard a little bit, and Hyunjung opens her eyes, her cheeks flushing from the early encounter with Jiyeon. She was already awake a few minutes before she felt Jiyeon slowly waking up, as she was watching the younger sleeping also prior to what Jiyeon did. Hyunjung shakes her head at this, and stares at the wall in front of her, trying to calm down and distract herself from thinking more about the situation. More questions are trying to pop out from her mind but she disregards them, sitting up to stretch her arms instead.

When she’s finished, she gives out a small grunt, and opens the partition on Jiyeon’s bed, and she almost screeches at the sight of Sojung on the opposite bed and she’s staring at her, eyes also wide when she sees the older girl.

“You scared me.” Hyunjung says, with her hand on her chest from the shock, her voice hoarse as she just woke up.

I didn't know that you were now sleeping there, unnie. The leader thinks, but chuckles in reply,  "What are you doing on Jiyeon's bed, unnie?"  

She clears to try regaining her composure. Get a grip, Cho Sojung.

Hyunjung chuckles nervously, I still haven’t told her yet. “I had a nightmare and I couldn’t go back to sleep so I went to Jiyeon.” She scratches her neck awkwardly, avoiding eye contact.

Since when did you go to her when you had nightmares or cannot sleep? You always go to me, unnie, Sojung wanted to ask her but kept shut. She could only nod and give a small smile as Hyunjung stood up and scurried away, probably going to start cooking their breakfast.

She walked quickly to her room and laid down on her own bed, slapping her cheeks respectively as if she wanted to wake up from something.Don't think about what happened yesterday, I'm getting weirder everyday I swear. Just don't think about it, breathe deeply.

She tries to calm herself again and goes to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

-

With all the dishes prepared on the dining table after an hour, all of the members sat on the table, with the exception of Hyunjung since she’s taking a bath. It was unusually quiet, with the clanking of spoons against their bowls the only thing that you can hear in the dorm. They were all still feeling tired and sleepy, but since the oldest called them out to eat breakfast, here they are with some of them still having their eyes half-lidded while chewing slowly.

All their heads turned when they saw Hyunjung walking out of the bathroom, her choice of clothes indicated that she's going out, not heading to their company to practice.

"Unnie, why are you dressed like that? Don’t we have to practice?" asked Dayoung.

The oldest only smiles, her eyes crinkling in obvious excitement, "Manager-oppa called me an hour ago, he said that we can take a break for today, so no practice."

Their faces lit up when they heard that but Dayoung asked again, "But unnie, where are you going if we don't have practice today?"

Hyunjung was quick to think of an answer, "Oh, I'm going to meet my friend today. We're just going to hangout and catch up."  

But Hyunjung knows that is a lie, and her members do not need to know about that. When their manager called and told her there was no practice for today, she decided that this is the best time to go to the doctor to get her heart checked up and rule out that everything is normal and she doesn’t have any cancerous disease that causes her heart to beat erratically.

Thankfully, they had believed her and so she grabbed her sling bag and went out, her face covered. 

Meanwhile, in the dorm, Jiyeon had decided that she'll just lay down all day and read, for all of the remaining members when Hyunjung left had decided to go shopping.

While she was reading her phone rang.

Jisoo.

She grabbed her phone and pressed the green button.

"Oh hey Jisoo! What's up?"

The girl on the other line releases a chuckle. "I just want to ask if you're free today? Maybe we can hangout or something? But it's okay if you're not, considering that you're preparing for your comeback."

"Well, our manager suddenly gave us a rest today so I'm free" She gives out a laugh, "Where are we going to meet?"

"We can meet at the Lotte Department Store if it's okay with you."

"Of course, see you in an hour."

"See you too, bye."

And the line went dead.

She starts getting ready and after thirty minutes, she's on her way inside the taxi to the mall, with a mask and cap on, which is a must for idols like her.

Can't risk that people will recognize me here and start rumours that are nonsense.

She clutched her bag tightly as she paid the taxi driver and got off. As she went inside, her eyes scanned the place, searching if Jisoo had already arrived. She arrived at the food court and continued searching in the crowd, looking for the color of clothes that Jisoo described to her that she would wear earlier.

Black tank top, sweatpants, cap and converse shoes, all black.

She spotted someone near the corner of the food court sipping her shake as she scrolled through her phone, obviously bored. Her clothes had fit Jisoo's description to her, and so she breathed deeply as she took quick strides and approached her.

"Hi, Jisoo." she smiled shyly.

Jisoo's face lit up when she recognized who it was, "Oh! Hi Jiyeon!"

Her voice was so cheerful that it gained attention on some tables. She just giggled softly behind the mask, good thing Jisoo told her real name or else.

Or else people had already recognized you, the tough life of being an idol.

"Let's get out of here, people are already staring at us." Jisoo stated, "Wanna go watch a movie?"

"Sure, it's been so long since I watched one." she replied.

She let Jisoo take her hand and lead the way.