CHAPTER 2

When Moonbyul lost control of her car she felt her life flash before her eyes.

Memories of her loved ones flooded her mind; including her family, but it was mostly about Yongsun. Her friends came to mind too; there were lots of memories that included Wheein and Hyejin as well.

Hyejin and Wheein. She suddenly realized how badly she treated her dongsaengs.

Even at the cafe she shrugged them off like they didn't mean as much to her as they actually did.

She remembers how Wheein would always wake her up for breakfast, how Hyejin would actively think of new things for them to do just to distract her from the sadness she's feeling, how they would both tuck her in at night when she's too drunk to take care of herself.

She remembers how she sometimes shout at both Wheein and Hyejin, how she tells them she doesn't need anyone but Yongsun. She remebers how she lets all their effort go to waste but somehow...they stayed by her side.

She takes a mental note to apologize and thank them when she gets back home.

And before she knows it her thoughts were suddenly back at Solar.

How she even brought Eric Nam to their 'private' dinner party. Its like she wanted to flaunt their relationship to her. Thinking about it makes Moonbyul really furious so she tries to divert her thoughts.

When Moonbyul arrived at their apartment she saw Wheein and Hyejin rested on the sofa. Hyejin was already asleep on Wheein's lap while the other girl's eyes were fixated on the tv. Byul notes how Wheein appeared to be fighting her sleep.

"Byul-unnie." As soon as she noticed Byul's presence, Wheein stood up after gently laying Hyejin's head against a pillow.

"You're still awake." Moonbyul stated. She was aware that it was way past midnight, and Wheein isn't the type of person to stay up late.

"We were waiting for you." Wheein replied timidly, and Moonbyul wondered why her friend would be shy to say something so simple.

Much to Wheein's surprise, she felt Moonbyul's arms tightly wrapped around her, as if she might disappear if she ever lets go.

Since Wheein's own arms were wrapped in Moonbyul's embrace and couldn't hug back she just gripped the rapper's shirt with her hands on both sides.

"I thought I was going to die." Moonbyul whispered, sighing in relief as if its her first time finally being able to breathe.

And as much as Wheein is enjoying their contact she pulled away from Moonbyul; concern got the best of her. "What happened?" her voice suddenly full of worry. The thought of not ever seeing Moonbyul flooded her mind. "I knew we shouldn't have let you drive."

"Hey..." Moonbyul cooed in an attempt to ease the worry of her friend. "I'm here now. I'm fine." she reassured; she didn't expect Wheein would react this way but she understands where she's coming from.

"But you just said you could've died!" Wheein exclaimed.

"No. I said I thought I was going to die." Moonbyul chuckled, amused with how the smaller girl is worried about her. "My tire exploded but I was able to step on the break, okay? I'm fine. I'm here. I'm alive." she says as if her presence in front of Wheein is not enough proof to assure her that she's alive.

"That's not funny." Wheein said, lightly hitting Moonbyul's left arm, she's frustrated at how lightly Byul is taking the situation.

Moonbyul chuckled again, oblivious of the thoughts that flooded Wheein's mind.

Wheein was about to say something but she stopped when she noticed how she's under Byul's gaze.

Byul tucks a lock of Wheein's hair behind her ear. "Thank you." Moonbyul said with a soft smile plastered on her face.

"You're crazy." Wheein said in disbelief, she just hit the girl and she's thanking her.

"Thank you for waiting for me tonight." Moonbyul elaborates. "And all the times before that...Thank you for caring about me."

Wheein furrowed her brows. Moonbyul is thanking her for the things friends are supposed to be doing. That should already be a given. She didn't need to thank them for it.

Wheein looked confused, but she doesn't question Moonbyul, and lets her continue.

"Thank you for always supporting me, for giving me strength and courage. Thank you for always being there for me. Maybe its the same reason why I take you for granted; because I know you're always gonna be there."

"Unnie..." Wheein wanted to say something but she didn't know what to say. She feels like her heart might explode at any moment; her heart beating erratically against her ribcage.

"You and Hyejin...you guys were there for me when Yongsun and I broke up. I was stubborn and I know I'm hard to deal with but you guys stayed. So thank you for that." Moonbyul almost cried, if her eyes didn't run dry from crying so much; she's been crying since she left the party last night.

Wheein on the other hand doesn't seem to be having any problem crying in that moment.

"Wheeinie, don't cry, please." she said as she cups Wheein's face to wipes the other girl's tears with both her thumbs.

Wheein was to overwhelemed to say anything back and just smiled in response; her infamous dimple making an appearance while tears continously flow from her eyes.

Moonbyul didn't know why she had the urge to trace Wheein's dimple, but she did, and the gesture rendered both of them surprised. 

If it were any other time they would've just laughed it off, Wheein would've told Moonbyul that she's being weird again, but in that moment, after Moonbyul just said the words that she said, and looked at Wheein the way she looked at her, Wheein undeniably felt as if there was a butterfly sanctuary inside her stomach.

It felt intimate, and it seemed like Moonbyul felt it too because she almost jumped at Hyejin's voice, like a criminal caught red handed.

"Ya, what are you guys doing?" the maknae just sat straight up on the couch, her eyes were half closed, her voice was raspier than usual.

"Nothing!" both of them half shouts simultaneously.

Hyejin just raised her eyebrow knowingly and laid back to sleep.

Hyejin remembers waiting for Byul and falling asleep at the sofa with Wheein, so she was dumbfounded when she wakes up at her own bed the next morning.

"Good morning, sleepy head." She heard Moonbyul greet her.

She was taken aback seeing her unnie in such a great mood this early considering the way she has been the past months. "Unnie, is that really you?"

Moonbyul just laughs as Hyejin blinks twice. "I made us breakfast." she states proudly.

Hyejin gasped. "No you didn't! Who are you and what have you done with our Byulyi-unnie?!" she asks suspiciously, wondering if Byul is on some kind of drugs, because of how chirpy she seemed. Could such a change really happen overnight? Hyejin wonders.

"Hyejin-ah, I'm trying to sleep." Wheein mumbles in her bed, pulling her blanket up to her head.

Hyejin ignored Wheein's complaint. "Byul-unnie made us breakfast." Hyejin stated, making Wheein sit straight up.

"I just..." Moonbyul trailed off, finding words to explain her gesture. "We only have a week left until we start preparing for our comeback, and all you two did was take care of me. I'm just trying to make it up to you."

"Awwww." Hyejin and Wheein cooed simultaneously.

"That's sweet of you, unnie." Hyejin states, patting the top of Byul's head.

"Yes, but Hyejin, please go sleep on your bed, next time." Moonbyul added.

"You carried me to bed?" Hyejin's eyes were glistening in amusement. "Consider me touched."

"Thank goodness." Moonbyul remarks. "You weren't exactly light." she jokes earning a glare from Hyejin.

"And what have you two been up to while I was sleeping?" Hyejin decides to ask, trying to get back at her unnie for teasing her. She remembered seeing the two in a deep conversation last night.

It even looked like they were about to kiss, but Hyejin shrugged the thought off her mind; its ridiculous.

But her friends didn't answer and exchanged looks instead of casually shrugging it off, causing Hyejin to raise her eyebrows in suspicion, "What did I miss?"

"Nothing." Wheein tries to cut off the conversation but its too late to satisfy Hyejin's growing curiosity.

A week passed since Moonbyul's outburst happened.

It was a usual day for Wheein, Hyejin and Moonbyul, and being the homebodies that they are, they decided to stay in and hang out in their apartment.

Hyejin and Moonbyul settled on watching a movie while Wheein is busy writing a song.

"Wheein-ah. Look at me." Moonbyul demanded, causing the younger one to look up from her notebook, only to see her unnie holding up a phone pointed at herself.

"Why? You're just taking pictures of yourself." Wheein questioned.

Moonbyul makes eye contact with the blonde girl with a greasy smile plastered on her face. "So I could smile." she reasoned.

"Unnie, stop that." Wheein blushes as she tries her best to stop her lips from forming a smile.

Hyejin rolls her eyes with the scene unfolding in front of her, unable to focus on the movie they're supposed to be watching. "Byulyi-unnie, stop that. Wheein might actually believe you." Hyejin says feigning annoyance.

Moonbyul has been teasing and flirting with Wheein non stop for a week now, and even though Hyejin is secretly enjoying their interactions, she's getting tired of Moonbyul's bragging smile every time she successfully makes Wheein blush, which is 101% of the time.

"Wheein-ah." Moonbyul calls her attention. "Do you want me to stop?" she asks with a pretense innocence, as if Wheein haven't told her a hundred times to stop.

In her defense though, Wheein seemed like she's actually enjoying it, and Moonbyul enjoys making Wheein smile.

"Yes, please?" Wheein deadpanned. Even though if she's being honest, she'd rather have this greasy Moonbyul than the one who drinks and cries all day. If only her heart isn't too fragile to play games, maybe she would've encouraged her Moonbyul unnie to continue.

"Sorry, you just look so pretty that I can't help but bug you." Moonbyul confesses, she sounded like she's kidding but she genuinely liked teasing Wheein just because her reactions are cute.

"So why aren't you teasing me?" Hyejin questioned. "Don't I look pretty to you?" Hyejin asks, as she pouts playfully, pretending to be offended.

"What?" Moonbyul asks with flushed cheeks, trying to figure out if Hyejin is being serious. "Of course I find you pretty Hyejin-ah. Its just that..." she tries to find the words to justify her actions.

Hyejin narrows her eyes. "Its just that I'm not your type?" she inquired with a smirk, deciding to unnie further, but then Moonbyul was unable to answer her and she was taken aback as realization dawned on her.

Is it possible that her unnie really liked Wheein? It definitely seemed like it. Moonbyul used to Yongsun-unnie a lot before too, enjoying the girl's reactions. But Hyejin thinks Moonbyul surely hasn't moved on from Yongsun yet; just a week ago she was shouting at Yongsun for being able to move on so quickly.

She shrugs off the thought when she couldn't make sense of the situation.

She then notice Wheein, the girl still have her eyes glued on the paper she was writing on, but Hyejin knew that Wheein's attention was fully on their conversation for a while now, waiting for Moonbyul's answer as well.

"That's not what I'm saying." Moonbyul protests with a defensive posture, taking Hyejin's question seriously.

"But you admit that Wheein's your type?" Hyejin asks further, this time genuinely out of curiousity.

"Hyejin, I'm right here." Wheein points out, conscious that her friends are talking about her in that context when she's in the same room with them.

"She is." Moonbyul states, so easily, that Wheein didn't know if she should believe her, but it made her feel like her heart was auditioning for Cirque Du Soleil nonetheless.

But then Moonbyul laughed when she saw Hyejin's shocked expression. "You should've seen your face." she jested.

Hyejin then chuckles, she didn't realize she was holding her breath. She fell for her unnie's joke because she sounded sincere despite her tone.

Wheein knew it wasn't Byulyi's intention to play with her heart. She knows Moonbyul was messing with Hyejin and not her, but she felt her anger boil up inside her.

Suddenly their living room felt narrow; she felt like suffocating. She abruptly stands up from the sofa and walks inside her room.

"Wheein-ah." Moonbyul called out, both the girls noticing that Wheein looked upset.

Moonbyul was about to follow her but Hyejin stopped her.

"Unnie." Hyejin calls out. "Leave her be. I'll talk to her." Hyejin instructed, and Moonbyul complies, knowing that if Wheein is really upset, Hyejin would be able to calm her down.

When Hyejin followed Wheein in their room, the other girl was on her bed covered by her blanket from head to toe.

Hyejin locks the door before sitting on her best friend's bed, not wanting anyone to disturb their impending conversation.

"So you do like Byul-yi unnie." it was a statement rather than a question because she knows Wheein too well and there's no doubt in her mind now that her best friend really likes their unnie.

When Wheein didn't answer she continues. "Since when?"

Still no answer from the other girl.

"Wheein, you can't keep all of that to yourself." She forcefully removes Wheein's blanket. " I won't let you." she states, as she looks down at a curled up Wheein.

Realizing that Hyejin won't leave her alone unless she talk too her about it, Wheein releases a heavy sigh and sits up, turning her body to face Hyejin but not being able to meet her best friend's gaze;

Hyejin holds her hands when she sees her best friend fidgeting her hands. She squeezes it as a sign of reassurance; giving her strength to speak up. "You can tell me anything. If you're not ready to talk to me that's fine, but if you want someone to listen I'm here."

Wheein sighs deeply, gathering the courage to tell Hyejin the thoughts that's been invading her mind for so long. She opens but she didn't know where to start, and Hyejin notices, so she helps her by asking a question instead.

"Why were you upset?" she asks, giving Wheein a chance to process her feelings so she could start expressing it.

The blonde girl shakes her head. "I know she was just teasing you earlier, it shouldn't be a big deal." she states, seeming like she's talking to herself rather than to Hyejin. "But that's the thing; when it comes to her everything is a big deal." she says in frustration. "So even when I know that her compliments and all those flirting meant nothing to her I still fall for it everytime and I'm so mad at myself for letting it happen. I should've known better. But still..." she huffs in frustration, "...this" she points her heart with her fist. "-I still let myself hope that she could like me back."

Hyejin opens to say something reassuring like how she shouldn't lose hope, that Hyejin thinks its possible for their Moonbyul-unnie to love her back, but she's not in the position to speak for her unnie. They both know Moonbyul is still hang up with their Solar-unnie. It wouldn't help anyone to sugarcoat the situation, and she definitely do not want to give Wheein false hope, so she closes and settles caressing Wheein's back.

Wheein bites her lower lip. "I wanted to be a good friend. I wanted to be there for her while she's hurting. I want to hope that they can fix their relationship but my mind just kept thinking that maybe if it was me instead of Yongsun-unnie, she wouldn't be this hurt." she shakes her head. "And I hate myself more because I'm being such a bad friend." tears started falling from Wheein's eyes.

"No, no, no." Hyejin cooes, caressing Wheein's arm for comfort. She never liked seeing Wheein cry. She didn't know how long she could hold her own tears if Wheein don't stop crying. "You're a good friend, Wheein. You can't control your thoughts but you can control your actions. And you did nothing but be a good friend to all of us."

"I feel like I'm betraying Yongsun-unnie, and even Moonbyul-unnie." she confesses.

Hyejin shakes her head violently before pulling Wheein in a hug. "Don't say that. You can't control how you feel. You shouldn't blame yourself." she says sympathetically.

Wheein sobs harder.  "That's the thing: I can't control my thoughts, I can't control my feelings; I feel like I'm losing control of my own life." she faltered.

"You can only be free of your thoughts if you let it out, Wheein." Hyejin theorized. "I'm sure our unnies will understand."

Wheein pulls away to face Hyejin, "Are you saying I should tell them?" Wheein looked so anxious just thinking about it. "I can't do that - I -" She's not ready to say it out loud; whatever it is that she's feeling, because she knows that its wrong. Both Solar and Moonbyul are her friends. What if Solar gets mad at her? What if Moonbyul rejects her and feels awkward afterwards.  It honestly felt like a lose-lose situation for her, and she'd rather lose knowing that both her unnies will still be her friends.

"You don't have to..." Hyejin reassures her when she notice the panic building up on Wheein. "At least not now; but when you're ready...I'll be here beside you no matter what happens." Hyejin promised sincerely.

Wheein felt like a little bit of the weight was lifted off her chest, as if Hyejin now carries the weight along with her, and she felt comforted knowing that she'll always have Hyejin; she trusted her words and she trusts her.

 Mamamoo's month long break has passed, they started working again for a month now; practicing and recording for their comeback songs.

Solar and Moonbyul still isn't in speaking terms but they were professional enough to have a civil relationship like before. The stealing of glances and secret gazes came back as well, but this time around it was only from Solar's end.

The only time Moonbyul would look at her is if it was needed in the choreography, she doesn't spare her a glance more than necessary.

Moonbyul would fool around and have conversations with Wheein and Hyejin on their break time.

Sometimes Hyejin would come talk to her so she doesn't feel left out, sometimes its Wheein, and she's thankful for her members, but there was a constant ache in her heart, like a part of it was missing, and the only person that could fill it won't even dare look at her.

Moonbyul and Wheein are both working on their solo projects, so sometimes they come home later than the other members.

Hyejin and Solar won't start their solo projects until later that month so the two of them had time to bond.

"How's Byul?" Solar asks Hyejin inside their service car.

Moonbyul doesn't come when mamamoo members go out with the Red Velvet girls.

Apparently she doesn't go outside unless she's with Wheein or Hyejin.

"She's okay." Hyejin answers vaguely.

She notices how Hyejin and Wheein seemed to be avoiding having a conversation about Moonbyul with her.

She wonders if they just got tired of filling her in with what's happening with Moonbyul's life, or they know something they didn't want to tell her, and she have a strong feeling that its the latter.

Another month has passed with Yongsun and Moonbyul barely interacting, while Wheein and Moonbyul are evidently growing a lot closer. They have been performing for some events and fans started speculating on why 'Moonsun is dead' and how 'Wheebyul is rising'.

Their fanbase has been following them for so long that they know that something's wrong with how Solar and Moonbyul act around each other.

Rumors about a possible disbanding because of the conflict within the group, has been going around and their team found it fit to make some damage control.

"A duet?!" Moonbyul and Solar both exclaimed.

"Yes." Their CEO replies calmly, opposite with the singers' reaction.

"You promised your fans on your vapp, remember? But since we weren't able to fit it in your last album, we'll do it now." He continues, this is the damage control that their team has come up with.

"Hwasa and Wheein will have their duet too but that's a discussion for another time." He elaborates.

"We'll talk later if you'll have a choreography for it. For now just work on the lyrics and melody."

Moonbyul bites her lower lip as she taps her fingers against the table; she's nervous about the whole idea.

She's not worried that her and Yongsun can't pull it off; she's sure they will.

She's just not sure if she can work with Yongsun so closely. They would have to make the lyrics together and agree with how the song would sound...and eventually make a choreography...just the two of them.

Moonbyul wants to think she's dreading it, but the butterflies flying around her stomach tells another story.