SinB couldn’t sleep after that call. She was lying beside a superstar for crying out loud! Who in the world can say they slept- ah bad word choice- shared a bed with a superstar that wasn’t their lover? Not that SinB would brag about it, this was huge. If she ever let anyone know, she’d probably die.

Like this, SinB stared into space until Sojung woke up. The taller girl sat up like a zombie, taking a few seconds to realize why SinB was in her bed, then smiled slightly lopsided with sleep.

“Did you sleep well SinB?”

“Good morning unnie, I slept well enough. Thanks again for keeping me company.”

Sojung yawned and stretched her arms, SinB was awed all over at the length of Sojung’s body, her arms, her legs, did she say that Sojung could’ve been a model before? Sojung checked the clock, rubbed her eyes and slipped on her glasses before looking back at SinB who was still staring at her.

“SinB? You alright there?”

“It’s nothing! I’ll go clean up first!!”

Rolling off the mattress with a bump and a slightly painful landing on the small of her back, SinB scrambled to her feet and hurried to the bathroom. Sojung scratched her head, watching SinB make a mess of herself.

“She must’ve really been scared of that movie. Huh.”

Grabbing her phone, Sojung flopped back against her pillows, scrolling through her messages. Finding one that was sent at 5am, her eyes shot wide. Checking the date, she groaned and rubbed her face. She had skipped a photoshoot, her manager was probably livid with her, as well as the company. But her phone wasn’t exploding with angry messages, nor calls from her agency. Opening her phone app, Sojung stared at the last call logged in the “recents” tab, as it was the default tab opened.

Tapping on the last call, she opened the details. This call lasted for exactly 2 minutes. But she had no recollection of answering the phone at 6 in the morning. Pressing call immediately, Sojung bit her nails as the dial tone rang, once, twice.

“Who answered the phone at 6.”

This wasn’t a question; it was a demand.

“Your roommate, did you sleep well Sowon? You need to make up that photoshoot later tonight.”

“What did you talk to her about.”

“I just asked where you were. She asked to let you rest.”

Sojung pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing deeply.

“What did you call me when you asked her.”

“Hm? A weird question Sowon ah, I called you like you always did.”

Sojung pressed the end call button with a loud crack of her nail on the screen. Throwing her phone onto her bed, she wanted to scream, but even shoving her face into a pillow wouldn’t muffle her frustration.

“Unnie? I’m done with the bathroom.”

Sojung sat up, watching as SinB as the younger tilted her head, wondering why Sojung was almost glaring at her. It couldn’t be possible that SinB didn’t realize, right? Maybe she didn’t hear her manager right and was half asleep when she answered the call.

“Unnie?”

“Ah, I’ll be right there.”

SinB nervously patted her heart as she sat down in her room. After making and having breakfast with Sojung, pretending she didn’t know anything, this act was taking a toll on her.

“There has to be a reason why she didn’t tell me.”

If that was the case, then she shouldn’t bother Sojung about it. Clenching her fist, SinB stood up, determined.

“She’s just my Sojung unnie! Who cares who else she is!”

Getting ready for school, SinB distracted herself by loading all her essential books and notebooks into her backpack. Surely class would help her distract from thinking of Sojung. Rushing out of her room with her backpack roughly tossed over her shoulder, SinB quickly declared that she was going out before sprinting the whole hallway to the elevator. Jamming her hand in the doorway before it closed, SinB got in and took a deep breath.

“SinB?”

Looking up, SinB found a very familiar smile.

“Oh, good morning Yerin unnie.”

“Morning! Where’re you rushing off to this morning? Class?”

“Ah, I’m not late or anything, I swear.”

Yerin chuckled, she was dressed in a long purple one-piece dress, it was of a light material and looked to flow, showing the smoothness in texture.

“I’m not some counselor in charge of chasing students to class, don’t worry. I’ve skipped classes before too you know?”

“Eh?”

“One or two classes is the maximum though; I really don’t suggest you waste money like that alright?”

“O-oh.”

SinB twiddled her fingers as Yerin hummed a soft tune beside her, filling the silence of their not so fancy elevator.

“Yerin unnie, are you uh, busy right now?”

“Hm? Not exactly, I was going to go on a morning walk.”

“May I join you?”

“Sure, did you want to talk about something?”

“Yeah, just a little.”

 As Yerin chatted with her, talking about the sun that was rising higher, the smell of fall nearing winter, the chilling breeze that was getting closer and closer to touching their bones, SinB had realized that she was relaxing at last. The release of her stiffness had happened so physically that she felt like it hit her, did that mean she had acted rudely to Sowon before leaving the house?

Yerin noticed SinB’s expression drop and pulled her by the arm, leading the way to a bench. Sitting down, Yerin waited patiently for SinB to talk to her, humming to herself as she looked out at the half gloomy sunlight that was dimmed by the clouds.

“Yerin unnie?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I accidentally happened on a big secret.”

“Is it one that will get you in trouble?”

“Maybe.”

Yerin checked SinB’s forehead, deeming that she didn’t have a fever, it didn’t seem as if SinB had happened on some mafia or crazy thing, but she must have gotten into some small trouble. SinB didn’t even flinch at her cold hands with how lost in thought she was.

“You probably shouldn’t tell me then.”

“I know, I really shouldn’t. But say I found out a big secret, but the other person doesn’t know.”

Yerin nodded, her hands gently keeping her dress from billowing in the wind. SinB momentarily noted how feminine Yerin was but paid it no mind why she did take such a note.

“How should I act? Do I tell them? Come clean and apologize for finding out? Or do I pretend I don’t know anything?”

“Hmm…I think a good person would come clean, if you want to keep a good relationship, it’s not nice to keep secrets from each other, unless, of course, there was a huge reason to do so. Even so, you already know, so there’s no helping that. But, if you’ll get into some serious trouble, I can get why you wouldn’t tell. Just to make sure, you didn’t mess with the delinquents on campus, did you?”

“No no no, it’s not like that.”

Yerin’s reassured hum left them in silence again as SinB thought what to do, she groaned and held her head in her hands, elbows on knees as she tried to decide what to do.

“Judging from your reactions, you’ve already encountered this friend. You acted like you didn’t know.”

“How’d you- never mind. You know, she glared at me until I really said something that seemed like I didn’t know okay?”

Yerin gasped and covered .

“Now I’m curious what you found out, was it erted?”

“Wha- NO!”

SinB hit Yerin on the shoulder several times, only receiving giggles as response. The giggles did help her settle down, however.

“Thanks, Yerin unnie.”

“You’ve decided?”

“Yeah, I’ll come clean the next time I see her.”

“Good girl~, be courageous!”

“Th-thanks.”

Sowon slammed her hand on the desk before her, startling her manager who then started to check that she didn’t bruise herself.

“You said what?!”

“I’m telling you the exact conversation like you asked, why are you so mad?”

The defeated groan that left Sowon’s lips sounded like the world was about to end, she slumped back into her seat and covered her face, her emotions now passed the angry phase towards depression. Whining into her hands, Sowon curled up into a ball, a reaction that rarely appeared, her manager was now getting worried that he had really screwed up big time. Would he get fired? No, that couldn’t be possible, he just said some meaningless words to Sowon’s roommate. Her roommate.

“Wait, you’re telling me you never told your roommate?”

“YEAH. I DIDN’T. GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?”

He flinched back and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Sorry.”

“What am I going to doooooooooooooo?”

SinB definitely knew, even if she had managed to avoid her suspicions for a while, this was too far gone. But SinB had been clueless with her this morning. That meant that she figured out that it was done on purpose as well.

“AGH! What if she told everyone!?”

“I don’t think your roommate would do that to you.”

“AND HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?”

Sowon was nearly growling at him, back at the rage again. Her manager just held up his arms in a cross in front of his face, almost as if to protect from a hit to the face, though Sowon would never do that.

“Sh-she was the one who asked to let you rest more and I got a chewing out by the board you know?”

“Oh, now you’re telling me your hardships, like I care!”

Ignoring her whimpering manager, Sowon bit her thumb as she thought. It was true, after their exchange, SinB had asked for him to let her off this job. Besides, from the time they spent together, albeit it was mostly over food and about the food when they ate, SinB wasn’t a bad kid.

Glaring at her manager, Sowon snatched the keys from his jacket and left the office, taking her manager’s car to the university. She was far too upset to be near her saboteur for a while.

Standing before her dorm door, Sowon pinched the bridge of her nose. How should she act when returning? The time was now 11:50pm, she had been out since 2 in the afternoon and hadn’t seen SinB since their breakfast, which was a little odd, as SinB often came back immediately after her first class to chat or do homework before her next class, but she didn’t this time. Was SinB avoiding her?

There was no point in thinking too much about it, Sowon pushed through and entered, leaving her shoes by the entrance and looking around.

“SinB?”

A head poked out of the bathroom doorway, toothbrush in mouth and hands held at an angle, they must have been wet, and she was making sure not to drip onto the floor.

“Mmg!”

“Ah, sorry, I was just wondering if you were still up.”

SinB gave her an eye smile and looked away to finished cleaning up, leaving Sowon to wait awkwardly on the couch. When SinB finally joined her, Sowon had already formulated a personality to take on. She was going to be extra nice and be like a mature older sister character. Why’d she have to take on a different personality you might say, but in her case, her socially distant personality wouldn’t be able to handle this kind of discussion.

“SinB.”

“Yes?”

“I talked with my manager.”

Sowon saw that SinB tensed a little bit. Maybe it would be bad to act anymore in front of SinB, but Sowon steeled her resolve.

“So, you’ve found out my identity.”

“Accidentally, yes. I’m sorry.”

SinB came clean, her hands gathered in her lap, eyes downcast.

“No, you don’t have to be sorry, it’s my stup- my manager’s fault for letting you in on such a heavy secret.”

Sowon maintained a business smile, it unnerved SinB. Were they going to be estranged now? SinB didn’t want that.

“Um unnie? Can we pretend that I didn’t know it? I don’t want unnie to become distant.”

“You do realize how greedy that is? To be this close to-“

Ah, her ego was showing.

“Sorry, let me say that again. I don’t believe we can do that. Because I know, that you’ll treat me differently, just like everyone else.”

“Wha-“

This irked SinB, was she really just everyone else to Sowon? She thought they were closer than that.

“If unnie wanted a peaceful life, I will gladly provide it, but unnie, I thought we were-“

This was falling apart far too fast for Sowon to keep to her plan.

“I just want a quiet normal school life.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

It could be easily read that the atmosphere in the room was rather frosty. Both sides had unfinished sentences, yet, neither seemed to want to back down. A cold war was brewing. Sowon didn’t want special treatment. SinB didn’t want Sowon to leave her in the dark. Did Sowon see everything SinB did for her as special treatment instead of genuine care? Even if it hurt SinB, she didn’t let it show.