The dark haired one stood in the doorway of the room, briefly admiring the way the dust particles seemed to dance through the rays of sunshine filtering through the blinds.  She then let her gaze be drawn to the way the sunlight gently caressed the exposed shoulder of the blonde, who was tangled in her sheets, still wearing her sweatpants and tank top.. “Wow, she must have been really tired,” she thought, briefly wondering what would happen if she woke her up by running her hand across that shoulder.  

Laughing to herself and shaking her head, she knew there was a right and a wrong way to handle this situation, and she had plenty of experience at this point to know which to choose. However, she also knew she needed to find out what was going on, because this was not like the blonde at all.  Crouching down on the floor next to the bed, she gazed at the sleeping blonde, smiling at how innocent her face looked. It felt wrong to wake her up, but it was already quite late, and they had a full schedule of rehearsals planned, so she really couldn’t let her sleep either.    

At first she reached out her arm to gently shake her awake, but then had second thoughts, realizing the blonde might get annoyed that she was being actively woken up.. They had known each other for  quite a while, and although the dark haired one was a bit older, she was always careful to not act too maternal towards the blonde, realizing that if she did, it would change the nature of their friendship in a way that she would prefer it didn’t. That said, sometimes she couldn’t help herself, as the blonde really did need her guidance sometimes.   It was a fine line, but so far she was able to balance it.   

Deciding the best method was to play innocent, she put her elbows down firmly on the bed, resting her chin on her hands.  Enough stalling; she needed to find out what had happened the day before. But she also knew she had to be careful, or she would be none the wiser.  “Good morning, sleepyhead” she said pleasantly, hiding her suspicion as much as possible. “You’re late for breakfast, so I came to check on you.  Rough night, eh?”. 

Squinting in the sunlight, the blonde at first looked a bit confused, then momentarily startled, before she responded “Ah yes,” she said, smiling awkwardly.  “Umm, I was just catching up with an old friend, and we must have had a bit too much, my bad!”. 

The dark haired one knew the blonde well enough to know there had to be more to this story. Not mentioning the name was also pretty suspicious.”Oh, who?” she asked, then momentarily regretting being so direct. She had to remind herself that the blonde really didn’t have to tell her anything. 

“Hehe.. just a friend from before.. You don’t know her.. I promised I wouldn’t say her name because she wasn’t supposed to be taking a break from her busy schedule”  the blonde said, seemingly genuinely.  

The dark haired one was still suspicious, but knew she really couldn’t push this any further. If it was anything to worry about, she would find out later somehow. She knew the blonde was terrible at keeping secrets. And with a pang of concern, she realized the last thing she wanted to do was push the blonde away. She valued their friendship too much for that, and in her heart she trusted her not to do anything actually foolish.  Although they both liked girls, neither of them had really dated since they joined the group, and the dark haired one felt pretty confident that if that changed, she would see the signs well before it was serious. That was the benefit of the special connection they shared. Feeling less worried, she rolled over and rested her head on the blonde’s stomach. At this point, the important thing was that the blonde kept a low profile out in public, regardless of who she had met up with.  

“Just be careful when you do that, okay..  The paparazzi love to make up things when they see us in weird places at weird times” she said with a supportive smile. Realizing she was sounding a bit too maternal again, she added: “ And you are a dear friend, so I worry about you, Seulgi..”  but then felt herself almost blush as she realized she had gone a bit too far the other way. To prevent any further potential embarrassment Joohyun quickly stood up and headed out of the room. Walking down the hallway she shook her head at herself. Why couldn’t she just be as cool and calm around Seulgi as she was with everyone else. It wasn’t fair, she thought to herself exasperatedly. 

Joohyun sat down hard on her bed and covered her face with her hands.  “Why is she making me think like this?” she asked herself angrily. “Why do I feel like I have to know who she was with last night? Why can’t I just trust her?”  Biting her lip, she took a deep breath and sat up straight. “I am fine.. It’s fine.. It’s all fine.. It’s just some friend… “ Noticing Seulgi had made it out of bed, she watched as she stumbled sleepily down the hallway past her door.  “How can anyone be so adorable half asleep?!” she thought to herself with a small smile, and stood up and followed her quietly.  

Seeing how messy Seulgi’s hair was, she couldn’t resist doing something about it.  Catching up with her, she gently put her hand on Seulgi’s shoulder, and quietly let her know: “Seulgi, your hair..”   As Seulgi turned around surprised, Joohyun reached out on both sides of head and gently patted the hair down. She could tell how tired Seulgi still was by how she closed her eyes from the attention she was getting.  Joohyun felt the urge to ask more about what had happened last night but got distracted when she noticed Seulgi bite her lip.. “What the heck is my problem, she clearly still needs me most, I need to let this go for now and just be patient” she thought to herself angrily, shaking her head.  “Let’s talk later, Seulgi” she added, before turning around and walking away quickly before Seulgi could make her lose her composure any further.