SinB grinned, nearly skipping on her way to the cafeteria. She had seen Sojung act all nervous, pushing up her glasses every few minutes, shuffling her feet as she walked behind SinB.

“Unnie, it’s not like you don’t know where the cafeteria is, walk beside me, or do you want to hold hands? Haha.”

“T-that’s! Not it….”

Still, the teasing worked as Sojung moved up to walk beside SinB properly. This made SinB feel better, but also a little worried. Well, so long as Sojung didn’t show any signs of distress- that was hard to discern depending on the person, SinB hummed to herself, her grin lessening a little as she wondered if she was being a bit forceful.

“Unnie, do you perhaps have social anxiety?”

Sojung didn’t seem to react very seriously, so SinB hoped she hadn’t stepped on a landmine.

“W-well, not exactly? I just don’t have the chance to t-talk to people often.”

“Oh, that’s okay unnie, we can be awkward penguins together!”

“P-penguin?”

“Mm!”

SinB shuffled along the hall, waddling a little to make Sojung feel better, and it seemed to work, with the way she gave a small but endearing smile. Sojung could feel her phone buzzing, but only reached to silence it. She didn’t want to go to that meeting anyways, especially not with the company’s representative.

“S-so who are these friends of yours?”

“Hm? Yewonnie is the same age as me, she’s living with Yuna sunbaenim ah, you might be older than her I think, and then there’s Yerin unnie who is our RA and she and Yuna sunbaenim were friends the year before.”

“O-oh.”

Right, Yerin. Sojung wondered whether it was safe to be around Yerin, since the last time during class, Yerin had given her quiet the scare with how she deduced her mental state. Oh, and she had been instructed to let down her formal language with her.

“There they are!”

Sojung watched as SinB waved, a little like a puppy happy to see its owner, it warmed her heart to see that such an innocent person still existed.

“H-hello.”

“Guys! This is my roommate Sojung unnie!”

They all politely greeted her, it helped her relax as they were being good kids.

“Yerin unnie told me that you’re older than her, so can I call you unnie too?”

“E-eh? Y-you too? But like I said, you’re both sunbaenims to me.”

“Eyy, it’s too strict between us okay? Please? I don’t have many unnies at this school.”

Yerin gasped and faked a heartbreak.

“You don’t think I’m enough? You wound me so Yuju!”

SinB watched with amusement as Yerin then flopped on the table, whining about Yuju being mean to her. Yerin was always true to herself, bright, carefree, she really was quite the sunshine to have close. It made SinB feel a little bad that she had Yerin’s company, shaking it off and telling herself that having Yerin’s company wasn’t a crime.

“Noooo unnie is great and all, but unnie is one person okay? Is it bad to ask for another person to dote on me more?”

“Dote on you? More? Does everything I do for you mean nothing? Waaaaaa!”

Yewon giggled as Yuna then had to hug Yerin tight enough to stop her from causing a bigger scene. Turning back to Sojung and SinB however, she blinked as if she might have seen wrong. SinB watched as Yewon rubbed her eyes before looking at Sojung again.

“Yewon ah, what’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing. Really. Sojung unnie is really pretty.”

SinB grinned.

“Right? If she wore clothes that fit her better she’d be super popular don’t you think?”

“True, Sojung unnie if you wore slim fit clothes you could be a model with that height!”

Sojung smiled awkwardly, if only they knew. Tucking her clothes around herself a little tighter, Sojung just apologized.

“I just like being comfortable, th-at’s all.”

“Well that is a good point.”

“S-sinB told me that you were a-acting major?”

“Yeah! Let me tell you….”

Sojung smiled, listening to Yewon talk about how she had recruited SinB to be a photographer for their model training day and how it was almost like living her dream. Well, she was working hard for her dreams, a lot like Sojung was, years ago.

“You’ll do great Yewon ssi.”

“Sojung unnie, don’t be mean and just call the other two comfortably, call me Yewon.”

“S-sorry, it was a slip of the tongue…. Yewon.”

Yewon’s grin warmed Sojung a little, she was like a little sister that Sojung never had, was this how her older sister felt, when she told her all the things, she had accomplished every day? Blaming it on her maternal instincts and how Yewon was so small compared to her, Sojung shook the feeling off, just focusing on enjoying her time with SinB.

“How many times did I tell you how important that meeting was?!”

Sowon continued to glare at her hands in her lap, her fingers tiredly clasped together, like the proper lady she was supposed to be.

“I reminded you every single day for the last week that we absolutely had to land the deal!”

“Yet every single day, I had work, you never mentioned anything about what the deal was about, how was I supposed to know?”

Sowon flinched as her manager’s hand went up, but he breathed a deep sigh and put it back down.

“Can’t you just look at it from my perspective?”

“Can’t you look at mine?”

She was tired, exhausted, completely out of energy, the happiest she felt was when she was at university, where she could at least relax without his watchful eye on her everywhere she went. Even if she already knew that he followed behind her on campus as well, he would not directly interfere with what she did.

“Just because you’re our company’s biggest star doesn’t mean you get to be selfish.”

“I’m not being selfish!”

That was enough, she had had enough, she couldn’t bear listening to him for any longer. Without changing her clothes or grabbing her backpack, Sowon grabbed her phone and stormed out, tucking her hood low and over her eyes as she trudged through the dark streets.

Taking a seat on a park bench, Sowon looked up at the pitch-black sky, the stars invisible due to light pollution. A half chuckle left before she hunched over, laughing deliriously to herself.

“What am I doing?”

Slumping back once more, Sowon sighed.

“SinB will get worried, I promised to be back before midnight. But what am I? Cinderella? Hah.”

Unstably getting on her feet, she trudged her way back to dorm.

SinB was startled when a loud thud sounded from the living room, peeking out of her room, she found Sojung laying on the couch, pretty much a mess.

“Sojung unnie!”

She hurried out to make sure she was alright, wondering how she had managed to miss the sound of the door opening. Propping Sojung up so that she wouldn’t be sleeping on her front, SinB sighed when she found that Sojung was asleep already. She smelled just faintly of alcohol, so she didn’t drink too much, but it still worried SinB that Sojung had been out and around alcohol this late, and alone.

Well, she could’ve been not alone but then came home alone, still, SinB still had no idea what Sojung did for her job. Adjusting the Sojung’s jacket to make her more comfortable, SinB paused outside of Sojung’s room. She couldn’t get permission to go inside, and technically she really shouldn’t be going inside when the owner was asleep. Running a hand through her hair, SinB sighed and went back to her room, pulling her own blanket off her bed and bringing it to Sojung.

“I hope unnie feels better in the morning at least.”

“-nB! Earth to SinB!”

“Huh?”

SinB looked up from glaring into her lunch, she was eating with Yewon, now a regular thing after the morning classes they shared. Sojung had told her that it was fine and that her class would run late since the schedule changed.

“Your head’s been in the clouds all morning, do you even remember what homework was?”

“Homework?”

Yewon sighed and patted SinB’s shoulder.

“You should be thankful you have me.”

“Of course!”

SinB smiled finally, teasing Yewon about being a goody two shoes when a familiar voice called her name.

“Eunbi?”

SinB froze. Yewon waved her hand in front of SinB’s face several times, gaining no response.

“You are Hwang Eunbi, right?”

Yewon nodded but gasped and bowed her head, this girl was wearing the armband of the student council, definitely an upperclassman.

SinB reacted when her hand landed on her shoulder. She peeked up slowly, her hands still trembling a little. Yewon watched very carefully, just in case this person was a bad person from SinB’s past. Not that Yewon knew any of it, but she could guess with the way she reacted to strangers.

“It’s me, Jung Eunbi. Calm down.”

“E-eunbi unnie.”

SinB had a weird smile, as if she was trying to reassure someone that she was really alright, but rather than everyone else, Yewon felt it was for herself the most.

“I can’t believe it, you’re here at my school.”

“O-oh? What a coincidence.”

Yewon grabbed SinB’s hand, pulling her from her seat and grabbed their bags.

“Excuse us um, Jung Eunbi sunbaenim, we have class to get to. Have a good day!”

Hurrying off dragging SinB behind her, there was something wrong, but she didn’t know what. Knowing that Yuna was probably studying at this hour, Yewon pulled them towards SinB’s dorm room. Passing a worried Yerin.

“I’ll take care of her.”

“You sure?”

“Yea.”

Hastily entering the dorm, Yewon quickly ducked a hello when Sojung appeared from the kitchen.

“Pardon my intrusion.”

“It’s okay, Yewon.”

“Sojung unnie-“

“Is she alright?”

Sojung immediately went to SinB’s side, pulling her to rest on the couch and taking her temperature by pressing her hand to SinB’s forehead.

“She doesn’t have a fever.”

“Sojung unnie, we were having lunch when a sunbaenim came by.”

“Did something happen?”

“No, actually nothing really happened. This Jung Eunbi sunbaenim was just saying hi to SinB, they seemed to know each other, but then SinB stopped responding naturally.”

SinB closed her eyes taking a deep breath.

“I’ll go rest in my room.”

Sojung and Yewon watched worriedly as SinB walked into her room, closing the door behind herself.

“By the way Sojung unnie, you’re even skinnier than I thought you were.”

“Huh?”

“This is the first I saw you wearing slim fit shirt, just how small is your waist?”

“Ah, I had a thing to attend at work, it’s really n-not my style-“

Yewon hummed and looked more closely at Sojung.

“I swear I’ve seen you before somewhere. But whatever, I can leave SinB to you right unnie?”

“O-of course!”

“Then I’ll be heading off to get the rest of my classes done and grabbing SinB’s homework too.”

“You’re a good kid Yewon ah.”

Yewon paused in the doorway.

“And you’re really pretty.”

Sojung held her cheek. There was no way Yewon knew who she was right? She had never used her real name, she never dressed nicely in her private life, she didn’t even apply any makeup. Crossing her arms, she sat down on the couch, looking at SinB’s door.

When SinB had been vulnerable and talked about her past issue with people, she had guessed it wasn’t as simple as SinB had been brushing it off as. The way SinB reacted meant that this Jung Eunbi was a big part of it, whether the issue or the reason she didn’t know. Ruffling her hair, Sojung sighed.

“What can I do when I can’t even help myself? You don’t have time for this.”

Her phone buzzed and Sojung groaned before going to grab her stuff. She was wanted at the office.

===============

Sojung is tired, SinB meets Eunha from her past, Yewon tries not to dip too far in, the company is mad!!!