It’s a Friday when something finally starts to unfold. 

They have rehearsals, again, and Hyejin is not in the mood for absolutely anything at all. She barely slept at all last night, and still managed to oversleep only to realize she had no breakfast when she finally did wake up. With no time to pass by a convenient store, she arrives at the company already late, with an empty stomach, a hoodie pulled over her head, and earbuds still plugged into her ears. 

She sees Yongsun open to scold her, but she stops when she notices Hyejin’s demeanor. 

Hyejin is grateful. She’s not sure whether she’d start yelling back or start crying in the process of being berated. 

Her three members have spent enough time with her to know what she can get like when she’s in a bad mood, but usually only Wheein knows how to properly deal with it. She tends to clash with Yongsun at moments like this, who often tells her to step up and stop slacking off, but this time she seems to sense Hyejin is already going through a hard enough time.

Though her plan is to get through rehearsals as quickly as possible so she can go home and dive back into bed, Wheein seems to have a different idea. She walks over to the music player in the back of the room and connects it to her phone. They get into formation, but when the music starts they realize it’s not the song they were all expecting. 

“Huh?” Yongsun looks around her in confusion.

“Yes!” Byulyi cheers at the same time.

Wheein meets Hyejin’s eyes through the mirror with a playful grin on her lips as TVXQ!’s Rising Sun starts playing through the room, a clear ploy to brighten her mood. It’s something that has occurred countless times before. Silly and impromptu songs were often used to cheer someone up, but with everything going on between them now, Hyejin isn’t sure if she can appreciate Wheein’s efforts. 

Wheein and Byulyi immediately start singing and dancing along to the song, the younger girl dramatically turning towards Hyejin as the other tries to coax Yongsun into joining in. 

Any other day Wheein’s elaborate arm movements would have easily won over Hyejin’s heart, but today she feels like being petty. She doesn’t want to join in with her lighthearted shenanigans. She just wants to rehearse what they’re supposed to so that she can go home and sulk in bed. 

Wheein laughs when Hyejin actively starts avoiding her hands, moving out of the way with an annoyed grimace on her lips. That grimace would normally quickly turn into a small smile when the chorus of the song hits, but this time Hyejin doesn’t let it. Instead, she walks over to the music player and unlocks Wheein’s attached phone to play the song they need for rehearsals. 

“Hey,” Wheein complains with a pout when the song stops abruptly. “You’re no fun.” 

“We’re not here to have fun.” 

Wheein drops her arms by her side with a sigh, turning back to the two older girls. Byulyi shrugs while Yongsun frees herself from her arms. 

“Let’s rehearse now. We can have fun later if you want,” she suggests.

“That sounds weird, unnie,” Byulyi muses, immediately making Wheein double over in laughter. “We can watch a movie and have a drink at my place though.”

“I’m not drinking, but I’m up for a movie.” Yongsun starts listing a handful of movies she’s still been meaning to watch, most of the titles unfamiliar to Hyejin’s ears. 

“As long as it’s not horror,” Wheein says pointing a finger at the leader.

“I’m good with whatever. Hyejin, you?” 

Byulyi looks at her curiously when Hyejin starts shaking her head. “I’m not coming tonight.” 

Wheein’s shoulders drop, clearly disappointed by Hyejin’s dismissive behavior. “Why not?” she asks, and Hyejin can’t help her accusatory tone from ticking her off even more. 

“Because I didn’t sleep well last night.” 

“So what? We have the day off tomorrow, you can sleep all day then if you want to,” Wheein responds. 

Yongsun interrupts by clapping her hands and shaking Wheein back and forth by her shoulders. “We’ll discuss this later, guys. Let’s just get this dance routine done first. Byul said she has some great ideas.” And so they drop the subject for the time being and start rehearsals instead. 

The heavy mood in the room doesn’t change. Wheein is visibly annoyed by Hyejin’s bad mood, her eyes spitting fire every time they meet hers through the mirror, and sighing just a little too loudly when Hyejin messes up a step. 

Hyejin can't help but think of how selfish she’s being. Wheein has no right to get annoyed with her right now, not after she pushed her away for days after their kiss. They still haven’t talked about the growing wedge between them because of Wheein’s dismissive behavior, and Hyejin isn’t in the mood for more senseless and avoiding conversations that day.

At the end of practice she’s even more mentally drained than she already was, so when they finally, finally, prepare to leave and Yongsun asks if she really isn’t coming to hang out with them, she confidently says “most definitely not.” 

Wheein lets out a bitter chuckle at her words, and Hyejin is about to pettily copy her, but the look on Wheein’s face stops her. She doesn’t look annoyed or disappointed anymore. The way her eyebrows are slightly knit together and her lips are pulled into a thin line revealing her dimple to her tells Hyejin that she’s desperately fighting back tears. 

It surprises her, and she momentarily forgets about her own annoyances, but Wheein has already slung her bag over her shoulder and makes her way to the exit with Byulyi in tow, leaving Yongsun and Hyejin behind.

She’s about to sling her own bag over her shoulder and leave, but Yongsun stops her in her tracks by suddenly, unexpectedly throwing her arms around her shoulders. She pulls her tightly into her body, and it takes Hyejin a moment to realize what’s going on.

She stands frozen as one of the leader’s hands presses between her shoulder blades while the other finds the back of her head. For a moment she tries to pull back to ask what the hell is going on, but when Yongsun doesn’t let her, she slumps her shoulders and leans further into the embrace. Her arms wrap around the other girl’s waist as her head finds the crook of her neck. 

The hug makes her realize how touch-deprived she is. It makes her realize that she went from daily touches of affection to being pushed away and thrown around like she didn’t matter. She’s grateful to Yongsun for always knowing what her members need, despite not always being able to vocalize it. 

After a moment, the hug becomes awkward and they both slowly pull back from it. Yongsun clears as she turns back to the mirror and starts redoing her ponytail.

“You know, if you ever feel the need to talk about something, you can always come to me,” she says as she struggles with the tie in her hands. 

Hyejin appreciates the leader’s words, but they both know neither of them are used to discussing their feelings properly. They have always been like this. They used to clash over it at times when they were trainees, but now they understand the other so well that they often don’t need words to communicate. 

“I know,” Hyejin nods. “Thank you unnie.” 

“Anything at all,” she drags out. “You know, also if it’s… Wheein related.” She tries to sound casual, but the way she intently looks at her through the mirror makes Hyejin understand that she knows there’s more going on between her and Wheein than they have ever vocalized.  

She feels her heart beating faster at the thought of her telling Yongsun about what happened between them, and for once she doesn’t immediately push the thought away. Perhaps confiding in the leader wouldn’t be such a bad idea. It would certainly make her feel less lonely, and maybe she would even have some good advice to give. 

But how would she even start explaining the situation? The four of them had known each other for years. She couldn’t just out of the blue tell her that she had fallen in love with Wheein but that the other girl refused to talk to her about it. She couldn’t make Yongsun a part of the mess that their lives had become, right? Or could she?

Just at that moment, Byulyi pokes her head inside again, tapping on the glass of the door to catch their attention.

“Unnie, are you coming?” she asks.

Yongsun looks at Hyejin expectantly, seemingly waiting for her to either open