“I don’t have long,” are the first words out of Xuanyi’s lips.

Bona blinks, disconcerted. “Oh. Okay.”

“I would spend the night if I could.” Xuanyi glances at her from under her lashes. “If you would have me.”

“Of course I would. Have you.” Bona’s face feels slightly warm, and she clears . “So – your hair. It’s—different.”

“Oh! Yes.” Xuanyi casually flips a bit of it. “Do you like it?”

Like it? Bona had stared at her selfies, entranced, for long than she would admit. It’s not a colour she’d envisioned on Xuanyi, but it looks lovely on her. Of course, she’d think pretty much any colour would.

“It’s pretty,” is what Bona says. “It suits you.”

Xuanyi keeps her eyes on her. “Does it?”

“Yeah, it’s all…” Bona waves her hand around, like that’ll describe it. “It’s like silver but lilac but both but neither. It’s just. You look good.”

Xuanyi chuckles. “Thank you.”

“I liked the blonde too, when you bleached it, but I like this better.”

“You haven’t been blonde in a while. You make a beautiful blonde.”

“I don’t make a beautiful brunette?”

“You’d make a beautiful baldy, is that what you wanted to hear?”

Bona wrinkles her nose. “I don’t want to be bald.”

“Me neither, and I feel like if I bleach my hair a few more times I’m going to be headed in that direction so. It’ll be dark hair for me for a while after this.” Xuanyi runs a hand through her hair, almost rueful, like she wanted to try more colours in the lighter spectrum but now won’t get a chance.

Bona reaches out and touches a lock of Xuanyi’s hair, gentle, so she won’t tug on it and hurt her. It does feel drier, stiffer than Bona’s used to. Hair is just one part of them that gets damaged for the sake of their careers, and it’s a part easier to bring back to life, comparatively.

She almost says something about a new conditioner brand she tried lately, but it feels like she’s wasting the precious little time they have together. They don’t have long, after all.

“I listened to your song. It sounds nice.” Bona wants to bite her tongue as soon as she says it. ‘Nice’? Could she give a more generic comment?

However, Xuanyi merely looks at her and smiles like Bona had given her some grand compliment. “Thank you.” She pouts, suddenly. “I wanted them to put more lines about milk tea but they thought one would be enough.”

Bona can’t help but let out a laugh at that. “Did you ask them to put one about seaweed too?”

“I did,” Xuanyi says seriously, “but they said it wasn’t sweet or summery, so it wouldn’t go with the theme of the song. I mean, I guess I can’t argue with that, but come on, seaweed goes with everything.”

Bona bursts into laughter at that, and Xuanyi reaches out and squeezes her cheek. Bona remembers when she used to do that to Xuanyi, when her face had been round and full with baby fat, delightfully giving under Bona’s fingers. Xuanyi’s face is so thin now, her cheekbones and jawline more defined, even though her eyes still curve into crescents and her gums still show when she smiles. Of course. That would never change, Xuanyi’s smiles, even if they seem dimmer, more forced sometimes when she sees them onscreen these days.

“Smile,” Xuanyi says, not giving her much choice when she pulls Bona’s face into one.

“What, are you going to say I look prettier when I smile?”

“You look pretty either way,” Xuanyi says, and Bona almost makes a remark about whether she says that to every girl but Xuanyi adds, thoughtfully, “Actually, I guess technically speaking you look prettier when your face is in a resting expression, even though you look kind of cold. But I like you like this.”

“Room temperature?”

Xuanyi grins, her face still crumpling into it the way Bona remembers, knows, loves. “Thawed,” she says. “Real. Kind of dorky.”

“Hey, says the biggest dork in the world.”

“In the universe,” Xuanyi tells her, sticking out her tongue, and it’s like they’re teenagers again, stumbling into a practice room like a puppy pile, reviewing Korean and Chinese respectively, sharing their hopes and dreams and fears in a way that got through to each other despite their language barrier.

“Seonui-yah.” Her Korean name spills out of Bona’s lips.

“Yes, Jiyeon-ah?”

“You—” Bona shakes her head, unable to parse what’s in her heart into words.

Xuanyi puts a finger to her lips. “Shh. It’s okay. I get it.”

“Okay,” Bona says, reaching for Xuanyi’s hand and feeling her squeeze in return. She trusts that Xuanyi does.

A/N: I saw Xuanyi was in Korea the other day, and the time probably doesn't match up since in this fic she had dyed her hair and her new song had been released, but I'm going to take some creative license for the sake of fic.