Strictly No Dating

Chapter 12

Almost 2 weeks had passed since the incident in the dance studio.

Chaeyeon and Sakura are getting alone fine, after Chaeyeon came to meet her personally and apologized to her the next day. But they didn’t exactly bare all the truth, about Eunbi, and it did affect their friendship in some ways. They’re not as close as they used to be. Chaeyeon was hoping that Sakura would tell her first, while Sakura didn’t know where to begin. She suspected that Chaeyeon caught a whiff of what’s going on, but she didn’t have the guts to ask her either.

Lucikly for Sakura, they spend a lot of their time in Japan, where they didn’t have to stay in dorms. Sakura gets to go back to her apartment, and the other members were staying in hotel. At least she didn’t have to sleep in the same room as Eunbi. They needed the space. They both do.

The girls had to fly back to Seoul that weekend, to attend the MGM Awards or MGMA. Only a few of the top idols were invited, among others are Mamamoo, ITZY, Cosmic Girls and Twice. Nako was excited as always, since she gets to meet Twice members again.

They prepped up in their stage outfit, wearing royal blue dresses, already looking like a bunch of winners. Sakura keep herself distracted by playing around with Yena or sleep while waiting. Eunbi seems occupied with her phone almost the entire time probably chatting with her extensive idol friends, Sakura thinks. Eunbi has been a trainee for a long time, and she knows a lot of people in the industry. She almost have friends in every idol groups. It used to make Sakura jealous, the way she spends a lot of time with her friends, but then again, who is she to even feel that way for Eunbi anymore. She could feel her heart breaking again.

Suddenly the door to their waiting room was knocked.

“Who’s that?” asked the manager, Miyeon.

She gets the door and smiled as she saw who it was.

“Look who’s here? Come in girls!” she greeted cheerfully.

All of the members were curious of their visitor and looked at the door.

Nako gasped, “Ah, it’s Twice!”

A few Twice members walked inside their waiting room. It was Dahyun, Jihyo and Sana. Chaeyeon leaped on her feet immediately and went to hug her friends. They have known each other from a different reality show and are quite close. All of IZ*ONE members greeted their seniors, bowing and talking with them. Nako was super excited and keep herself glued by Jihyo’s side. The Twice leader put an arm around Nako’s shoulder and they chatted lightly.

Sakura was awestruck with Sana’s beauty, no matter how many times she had met her before, she’s amazed every time. The Japanese girl is beautiful, charming and graceful, there’s not a single flaw on her. She’s flawless in Sakura’s eyes. There was a time she had Sana’s photo as her phone wallpaper. She tried to be friendly with her but since she’s quite awkward around strangers, they never get past the regular ‘hello’ and ‘how do you do?’.

“Eunbi-shi, we meet again,” Sana suddenly said to Eunbi.

The IZ*ONE leader looked at the Japanese girl and smiled, “Yes, we meet again!”

She walked closer and naturally reached for her hand and held it.

“You look amazing in blue dress, Eunbi,” Sana said, her eyes darting from her head to toe.

Eunbi let out a chuckle, and her cheeks turned slightly pink. She noticed that Sana had suddenly dropped honorifics with her, and it does make her wonder why. But she played along and be friendly with her too.

“I realized that I don’t have your number,” Sana said, smiling coyly.

“Hmm?”

“Can I have your number? Who knows, I might need it,” she replied.

Eunbi blinked her eyes a few times as the girl was staring into her eyes. She didn’t look away, and smiled at her, making Eunbi blushed a little.

“Sure, my number is-

The two girls exchanged their numbers. Sana seems satisfied. They talked more about the upcoming performances and also their schedule in Japan. Sana seems to always have things to ask her, not wanting their conversation to stop.

“Alright, Sana, stop flirting with Eunbi, we need to go back and prep,” Jihyo said.

Her remark caused the others to laugh along, well, except Sakura. She saw the whole thing, the flirting, the numbers exchanged. But she felt powerless to do anything.

Sana chuckled, “Fine.”

Before she left she shot one last look at Eunbi and said,

“I’ll call you.”

**

Their group managed to snag two trophies that night, with the second one was unexpected. Their winning speech was a bit messy too, with the absence of half of their members. All the members under 18 had to leave the room, leaving only the unnie-line members to accept the award and attend the ending stage.

The ceremony ended with confetti and the parade of the idols around the stage, bowing to the audience one last time. Sakura was walking alone and lagging behind, as the other members were occupied. Chaeyeon walked with Dahyun from Twice, Yena with Chaewon at the front. As Sakura was walking alongside the stage, she saw Eunbi walking alone in front of her.

She reached her arm slightly towards the younger girl.

“Come here, Kkura,” she called.

Sakura immediately went to her side and grabbed her arm. Her hand soon finds hers and they intertwined. The Japanese girl was so happy; her heart was about to jumped out of her chest. The last time they held hands affectionately was last month, right before they broke up. And now they coul