Miyawaki Sakura wasn’t sure when it all begins.

Was it when she first saw her in the class evaluation stage? She was really eye-catching, everything about her screamed amazing, and Sakura must’ve fallen under the spell. Who doesn’t?

“You’re beautiful,” said Kwon Eunbi to her minutes after she settled down on her chair on the pyramid stage.

She remembered she turned to look at her back then, and their eyes met for the first time. She was amazed herself. Eunbi herself is beautiful. In a glance, she actually looked like the Korean idol she’s currently in love with, Irene.

Maybe her heart was already sending signals at the time.

She still remembered how much she was impressed when the Woollim Entertainment trainees performed. In the middle of the group dance, Eunbi suddenly bursts into a solo dance, and the whole studio was blown away, including Sakura. The older girl exudes charisma and coolness and she was an absolute girl crush, making people falling at her feet. 

They were assigned into the same class at first and they also became dorm mates. Eunbi has always been so nice towards everyone, herself included. She can’t speak Japanese so they mostly communicate with hand gestures and broken languages. It took almost 10 minutes for Eunbi just to ask her if she was hungry, but she was patient enough to attempt it until they could converse freely.

When Sakura had the chance to pick her own team, she picked Eunbi.

When they were assigned to songs missions, she was glad to be in the same team as hers.

When they announced the winners the final night, she was so happy that Eunbi wins too.

Maybe it was way back then.

And now they are in the same group, IZ*ONE, where Eunbi is the leader. And Sakura gets to be with Eunbi almost the whole time.

She thought she would be able to get over her stupid crush over the time.

But she was wrong.

Being in the same group with her means she gets to see more of her, not just her cool side but also her clumsy side, her lame side, her snarky side and her cute side. The real Eunbi is like a baby trapped in an adult body, and it’s really fun teasing her. She gets flustered easily when she’s teased and she still can’t speak Japanese. She’s too charming.

And Sakura just fell harder than she should.

That’s why she’s so awkward around her. She gets along fine with anyone else in the group, especially with her best friend Chaeyeon, and her gaming buddies Hyewon and Yena. She can even joke around with Minjoo asking her to be her girlfriend or with Chaewon, saying that she’s her angel in her eyes.

But when it comes to Eunbi, her mind went blank. She tried joking around with the leader, like she was just another member, but when that happens, she can’t control the things that came out of .

“Jinjja nice body,” was her wish for Eunbi’s birthday, on live stream.

“I want to date with unnie just the two of us, because of ‘feel’,” was what she said on another broadcast.

And these are just a few of the incidents that was caught on screen. She could tell that Eunbi felt uncomfortable with her sometimes, especially when they are alone, but the leader was too nice. She always brushed off her border-line flirty remarks with a laugh. She puts aside her personal feelings and treat each of them with care, like a pro. She kept calling Sakura as pro-idol, but Sakura felt that Eunbi is the pro-leader that they’re lucky to have.

But on that day, Sakura felt like she may have crossed the line.

**

It’s not easy being an idol group leader.

Kwon Eunbi knows that. She’s the leader of one of the most popular Korea-Japan girl group, IZ*ONE for more than a year now. With a group of members who ranged from various ages, from their baby center, Wonyoung to the famous Japanese idol, Sakura, it’s just trickier than usual. Each member has different mood swings, hormonal changes and as a leader, Eunbi has to keep them together and united every day.

She’s their rock, their captain, and some called her their second mother, and Eunbi felt overwhelmed with it at times. She knows she holds a huge responsibility to lead the group until their contract ends.

But sometimes, no matter how she tries to keep her cool, she’s being pushed to her limit.

It’s all because one of the members.

“What is wrong with Eunbi unnie?” asked Wonyoung to Nako.

IZ*ONE had just landed from Japan and were headed towards their respective dorms after a long day of work. They were there to record for a few Japanese TV shows and managed to did a live broadcast for fans in between. But their leader, Eunbi had been acting strange since they landed, she hasn’t spoken a word or acting warm like she always does. And the members were wondering why, especially the babies, Wonyoung and Nako.

The twelve of them entered the elevator, and they couldn’t stop talking about the new waffle shop that Hyewon had discovered. Sakura asked her to take her there tomorrow since they were given a few days off.

The girls were hyper as usual, except for the eldest. She kept mum and her head hung low, deeply lost in her thoughts.

“Are you okay, unnie?” asked Chaeyeon, concerned.

She put an arm around the older girl’s waist and moved closer to her.

Eunbi looked up and met Chaeyeon’s gaze. She smiled weakly.

“I’m just tired, I guess.”

Chaeyeon smiled back, “Rest well tonight, unnie. We get a day off tomorrow too.”

“What are you doing tomorrow?” she asked.

Eunbi shrugged, “I’m not sure. Sian asked me out, so I might meet up with her for a bit.”

“Oh.”

Chaeyeon looked away.

“Why?”

“Nothing, I’m just curious,” she grinned.

“I almost thought you wanted to ask me to hang out with you tomorrow, like a date,” said Eunbi jokingly.

Chaeyeon laughed awkwardly, “L-Like you would agree to go out with just me.”

“Why not?”

Suddenly Hyewon came out from nowhere and linked her arm with Eunbi.

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