Eunbi pressed herself against the janitor closet's door, listening to the sobs emitting from the closet and hoping to all the gods that her gut feeling was wrong. She jiggled the door handle, but it was locked. 

"Hyewon," she tried. "Is that you?" 

The sniffles subsided. "No," Hyewon's weak voice replied. 

"The show’s going to start in a few hours, Hyewon."

"I c-can't do it, Eunbi, I really c-can't," Hyewon hiccuped. "Please, I can't."

"...Can you at least open the door?" Eunbi asked softly. 

A brief pause, and then a click. Eunbi pulled the door open to darkness. Inside, Hyewon was sat next to a mop and bucket, her head buried between her knees. She was shivering, Eunbi noted, though not out of cold. The sight of the woman she loved, hiding away from the world, hiding away from her as she struggled to contain herself, broke Eunbi’s heart. 

Closing the door behind her, Eunbi crouched down and took Hyewon's trembling body into her arms. She patted Hyewon’s back, soothing, whispering calming words like lullabies. How she wished she could erase all of Hyewon's fears and insecurities. How she wanted to make Hyewon see that she was gloriously beautiful, that she deserved the whole world and so much more.

Her shoulder was wet from Hyewon’s tears, but it was the least of her worries. She felt Hyewon take a shuddering breath as the model finally relaxed in Eunbi’s arms. Pulling back a little, Eunbi wiped at Hyewon’s tears with her thumb. “Feeling better?”

Hyewon nodded, wiping at her runny nose with the back of her hand. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologise for what you can’t control, Hyewon,” Eunbi rebuked gently. “If you really can’t do the walk, I’ll ask another model to cover for you.”

Gazing into Eunbi’s worried eyes, Hyewon’s breath hitched, words failing under her tongue. How lucky she was to have Eunbi, with her eyes full of understanding and with none of the pity Hyewon was so used to seeing during one of her panic attacks. Eunbi, who no doubt spent sleepless nights on this fashion show, making sure everything went exactly right, and yet still unhesitatingly tossing all that a