That first day after their kiss Wheein avidly avoids Hyejin, focusing only on the dance routine they’ve prepared for practice. She doesn’t join in with the usual banter. Instead she clearly just wants to get things done as soon as possible so she can leave again. Yongsun asks if everything is okay at one point, which Wheein quickly shrugs off with a nod. 

“Are you guys fighting?” Byulyi asks suspiciously. The older girls know their dynamics good enough to know when something is off between them.

“No,” Wheein immediately answers, sparing Hyejin a quick glance as she nervously plays with her waterbottle. 

The two older girls don’t look too convinced, clearly sensing the heaviness in the room. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing much, no.” Wheein shrugs indifferently, and Hyejin can’t help but scoff, immediately earning a stern gaze from the other girl.  

Yongsun looks between the two of them in anticipation, waiting for either of the two elaborate on the situation. “Right,” she drags out when neither of them does. “You guys are acting really weird.” 

“Hey, I didn’t even say anything,” Hyejin says defensively.

“Exactly. Weird.” Byulyi grins, but quickly cowers away when Hyejin playfully holds up a threatening fist. She drags Wheein in front of her by her shoulders to defend herself, but the brunette simply grimaces, clearly unamused. 

Hyejin drops her fist with a not-so-subtle roll of her eyes, which Wheein decides to ignore before turning back to the music player. “Let’s continue practice so we can go home on time.”

Hyejin can’t help but frown at that. She discreetly tugs on Wheein’s sleeve to get her attention while the two older girls are distracted with each other. “Wheein…” she says quietly when the other girl doesn’t respond. “We’re still going to talk about last night, right?” They can’t just ignore it altogether.

Wheein loudly shushes her with a frown, gesturing towards the older girls next to them. 

“Seriously, what is up with you two?” Byulyi chuckles at their mysterious behavior.

Wheein crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at Hyejin as if to say “I told you so.” Hyejin pulls up her shoulders in defense. She’s pretty sure it wasn’t her, but Wheein’s loud shushing that caught Byulyi’s attention. 

“Don’t mind us, Wheein is just in a mood,” she tells Byulyi, ignoring Wheein’s eyeroll. 

“Alright, let’s set your weird issues aside and just continue practice, okay? We still have a lot of choreography to get through.” Yongsun wastes no time playing the music through the speakers, barely giving the other girls enough time to get into formation. 

Wheein seems eager to leave Hyejin’s previous question unanswered, and she lets her off for now. She knows Wheein can’t run away from this forever, though when Wheein hangs her bag over her shoulder and mutters a quick goodbye to Yongsun and Byulyi before they’ve even had time to turn off the music, Hyejin catches up to her in a panic.

Wheein drops her shoulders in defeat when the younger girl grabs onto her arm and pulls her into an empty practice room. 

Hyejin scoffs at her in disbelief. “You were really just going to leave without talking to me about yesterday?”

“Figured I could try,” Wheein shrugs. She drops her bag to the floor and crosses her arms over her chest defensively. 

“Well, can we talk about it now?” Hyejin tries.

“There’s not really much to talk about,” she says with another indifferent shrug. Her disinterest would almost be comical if it wasn’t for the fact that it frustrated Hyejin beyond words.

“How can you say that? Of course there is.” Her fingers encircle one of the smaller girl’s wrists and pulls it towards her to break her defensive posture. “You know this wasn’t just some random thing that happened.” 

The kiss had thrown their friendship into unknown territory, and it wasn’t an option for them not to talk about it. After more than ten years of friendship, this wasn’t something that could just be ignored. 

“It didn’t mean anything.” Wheein pulls her arm back, the other girl’s hand now hovering aimlessly in the space between them.

Hyejin would have probably been hurt by her words if someone else had said them to her, but now she only feels more of her frustration bubbling up. She knows Wheein doesn’t mean it. She knows it meant more than either of them could understand. Like it was something that was always meant to happen.