A/N: Smol chapter just to show where each girl is after the wedding thing. Also before you ask because Im sure there will be comments about it on the next couple of chapters, as I said before this is a Chaennie endgame story, but the girls each need to figure themselves out, they need to heal in order to start again. Now Jennie might already be there but Chaeyoung is still conflicted and she needs to, first, realize it, accept it and deal with it and our baby still has some way to go on regards to that, so be patient ya'll . Our girls will be happy.

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Jennie was on her office, sitting behind her desk, talking to an old time friend…

 

“My mom used to sing to me. I don’t think I’ve ever really told anybody that before. It was like our little secret. But every night, she’d come i, and she’d tuck me in, and she’d sing me something like lullabies or album rock stuff. And then, after she was gone, I remember lying in bed for the first time and just feeling silence, you know… and then realizing that for the rest of my life, it was gone. All of her song were gone, and her voice, and the way it used to soothe me. Just all of it. So I guess I tried to find new songs to fill that quiet. But none of them ever really have, you know? Now she’s gone and Somi’s gone on tour… and Chae is gone. It’s just silence. Just… silence.”

 

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Who would have thought about the cause and effect?

Yesterday's love is not tomorrow's regrets

Now I know, now I know

I'm just a man on a wire,

 

Chaeyoung is standing on the harbor watching the view, in another time she’d have a pen on her hand and either a notebook, a napkin or even her hand with be filled with small lyrics by now, but not this time… this time she just stares at the view, thinking… always thinking.

 

“You hear that?” Her father comes to stand next to her,.

 

Chaeyoung frowns and strains her ear, listening but all she hears is… nothing. “Do I hear what?”

 

“Nothing.” Her dad says simply. “Silence. It’s nice, huh?”

 

Chaeyoung doesn’t think so, silence has not been her friend as of lately, it always brings out her worst thoughts, silence, right now… is anything but nice. “I guess so.” She says instead, not really wanting to get into a deeper subject right now.

 

Her dad chuckles and places an arm around his daughter gently stirring her so they can start walking towards the boat. “Honey, you got to get her out of your head. It’s been a month, sweetie. You gotta let it go.”

 

“Let it go?” She asks, as if the mere thought of it was ridiculous. “A month ago, I had my whole life ahead of me… a second album, granted not mine, but with my songs, a dance team, and a girl I was gonna spend the rest of my life with.”

 

“Well, you still have those things.”

 

“If I did, do you really think I would have spent the last four weeks at sea with you guys?”

 

“Which brings me to this… what are you doing here?” Her father asks and then pulls her closer. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’ve loved having you here, you are my little girl and I’m sure your mother was excited at having both her girls with us.” He reassures her. “But… we both know you are not meant to stay on a boat with your old parents, it’s time for you to get back to your life. And all that starts with a simple question. What do you want?”

 

No, I can't look down

I'm trying to fight the feeling

I will fall to the ground

If I ever see you

'Cause I feel like I'm walkin' a tightrope

 

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“I want to believe in it all again… music and art, fate and love. And I want to believe that I’ve made the right choices and that I’m on the right path and there’s still time to fix the mistakes I’ve made. And I guess I want hope. And I want Chaeyoung.”

 

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My heart is in my throat

I'm counting on high hopes to get me over you

And I've got my eyes closed

As long as the wind blows

I'm counting on high hopes to get me over you

 

“Hey, Chu. Love the whole bed head thing you’re rocking there.” Lisa said amused.

 

Jisoo rolls her eyes and opens her door fully letting Lisa in. “I was working all night last night, I got maybe two hours of sleep” She said yawing. “Mia?”

 

“Little bug’s at school.” The thai girl said, as she closed the door and left her things by the door.. “Jennie?”

 

“I dunno.” She said lazily sitting on the couch. “At her office maybe. She’s been going out at lot I thinks she’s trying to distract herself.”

 

“Well can you blame her? She comes back for her ex, then finds out said ex is with another girls, then she finds out said ex is marrying that other girl with a ring that she rejected and then turns out the ex’s new girl leaves her ex on the altar due to a story that was written about her.” Lisa says with a frown.

 

“She’s in denial… what else is new?”

 

Lisa shakes her head trying to forget the complicated story between her friends and walks towards Jisoo who was sitting on the couch. “Latte…lots of foam, extra even.’ She said giving the cup she was holding in her right hand.

 

Jisoo takes the cup and places it on the coffee table and then pulls Lisa by the arm to sit next to her on the couch, the brunette not wasting time in cuddling the other girl.

 

“I know we are supposed to be working right now, but I just been dealing with a sad best friend, worrying about my other missing best friend and press interviews I mean can’t they just go back to stalking Kim Kardashian or something? Is just another line.”

 

“Oh, come on.” Lisa said her arm going around the girl as she gots more comfortable on the couch. “Hot clothing designer pairs up with hot photographer to not only promote her new line but also model it? Who wouldn’t look forward to that.” She said and then pushes Jisoo away to look at her. “I for one can’t wait to the photo sessions.” Lisa says against the brunette’s lips before kissing her.

 

“Need I remind you there’ll be more than a few people there?’ Jisoo said pulling away, her hand resting on Lisa’s chest.

 

“My studio, I can get them all to leave if I want to.” Lisa said pulling Jisoo in again and laying her down on the couch.

 

“Work?”

 

“Let’s take the day off, work can wait… this, Chu is what I call reconnecting.”

 

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“You are not broken honey. You might think that you are, but… Before your mom and I got together I left her to go back to New Zealand. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, because I still loved your mom, but I knew there was a place in her heart that I would never occupy, a place reserved for someone else. Somehow, I just couldn’t get past it. Is this sounding familiar at all?”

 

“Yeah, she said my heart was conflicted.” The blonde said, they were now still in the harbor and Chae was helping her dad get the boat ready for sailing.

 

“Well, here comes the good news. There wasn’t a day while we were apart that I wasn’t completely in love with your mom. And all it would have taken was for her to simply say, ‘I love you, I miss you, and I need to be with you.”

 

“I don’t think is that easy, dad.”

 

“Honey.” Her dad chuckles. “It is that easy. Hyeri needs to be convinced that you love her. And did I mention there’s an airport near hear and New York’s pretty close from here.”

 

Chaeyoung laughs at her father’s enthusiasm, definitely being here had helped her a lot, this is what she needed. “I tried calling her dad, and she didn’t want to talk to me.”

 

“Has a day gone by since the wedding where you haven’t thought about her or wanted to see her, wanted her back?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then you owe it to yourself to tell her that. You owe it to Hyeri too. Just trust me. Over time not knowing is way worse than a no.”

 

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Jennie is pasting some posters to her wall when a visitor comes in.

 

“Hey, I’m here about the car for sale.”

 

“It runs great though it’s kind of…” Jennie turns around and sees a face she hadn’t seen in a long while. A face she saw constantly when she was in high school. “...old.”

 

“I think I’m old enough to get one.”

 

Jennie smiles. “Hi, Max.”

 

“Hi, buddy.”

 

The brunette walks to the older man and hugs him. Max used to be the owner of an record store, her and Chaeyoung used to visit frequently during high school, she cannot count the amount to vinyls she bought for Chae as a gift, she also can’t remember the amount of times she visit the store simply for the need to listen to some music or get some samples for her mixes.

 

“Why’d you close the store?’ She asked gesturing for the man to sit down on the couch while she sat behind her desk.

 

“How long have you been home?” The man asks instead.

 

“A few months.”

 

“And have you heard any new music?”

 

“Yeah, a lot.” She said nodding.

 

“Didn’t get it at my store, did you?”

 

“Okay, I see. It’s my fault.”

 

“No, it’s no one’s fault, I buy all my music online, too. That’s just the way it is.”

 

“Yeah, but the store really was a lot more than that.” She tells him, for the longest time that record store used to be her safe place, her escape.

 

“I hope so. I’d like to think it had something to do with this cool new record label. This place really is awesome.” The man says then pauses for a second looking at Jennie. “You think about her much? Chaeyoung?” He asks, at the end of the day he was a far away witness to their story.

 

“Everyday.”

 

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“Have you spoken to Jennie?”

 

Chaeyoung shakes her head in response.

 

“Not since the wedding?”

 

“Nope. I kinda left pretty much after the whole fiasco.”

 

“And the story, this whole comet business that Hyeri was going on about at the altar?”

 

Chaeyoung scuffs and shakes her head. “So me and Jennie and saw a comet on our first date, so ing what?’ She says frustrated. “What if I had written about a beach? My first date with Jisoo was at the beach... would that mean I was in love with Jisoo?”

 

Her father chuckles. As a parent sometimes you needed to watch your kids make mistakes, and most importantly you needed to let them figure out by themselves. ‘Where did you take Hyeri?”

 

“Oh, that’s not fair.”

 

What is it they say… mother knows best? Or father in this case...

 

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“I wish I could change some of the things about how I’ve acted in the last couples months. I guess I’m just disappointed in myself. You know, I told Chaeyoung that if she loved her fiance, then I would let to be okay with that because I wanted her to be happy. But really, I just wanted us to be happy… me and her.” Jennie admits, a far away look in her eyes as she tough about the last couple of months.

 

“Yet she didn’t marry her?”

 

“Nope, and I felt terrible for her and for Hyeri too, you know? Her heart is breaking right now, and I come here, and I sit in silence and hear the echoes of who we used to be. And so I wish for patience...and grace… and the strength to let her be happy. And mostly, I pray for the strength to not make her life worse because of what I want. That’s the toughest part… letting go, you know? And that’s the part of grace that really .

 

“It’s all gonna be okay, you know?”

 

“I guess, I kinda do. It’s just some days are kind of messy, you know?”

 

“Well, it’s only life according to Somi.” Max said referring to one of Somi’s songs. You ever wonder where she’d be if you didn’t decide to start this label?”

 

“She would be fine.”

 

“Maybe not. You changed her life, Jennie. So maybe that’s why you came home… in order to change the life of the next artist or the one after that...maybe change your life at the same time. I think you’re good here. You just need a little patience.”

 

“Patience.” Jennie said chuckling. “Time heals old wounds huh?”

 

“Time, music.” The man says nodding, “Let me ask you something. When’s the last time you got into that cool car of yours, turned up the stereo and just drove? You might try that sometime… maybe something there to heal that broken heart of yours.”

 

There’s something about Max’s words that makes Jennie feels… relieved? Like maybe he’s right and she didn’t just come back for Chae even if that was the main reason, maybe… just maybe being here made her realize she wasn’t feeling just heartbroken but lost as well and that spark that she had lost along the way had come back again when Somi came to her life with her lyrics and young enthusiasm. Maybe… just maybe… this old man is on too something,

 

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The higher I get

The more I miss the ground

No safety nets

Now you're not around

I have to keep walking

To keep me from falling down

 

Hyeri walks into her office and see’s Chaeyoung there.

 

“Can you pick up line one for me, please?” She tells her assisant.

“Hi.” Chaeyoung says nervously.

 

Hyeri nods and gestures for the both of them to sit.

 

“Well, I’ve been traveling with my parents since…”

 

“Yeah, I talked to Seulgi.” She says.

 

“Oh.” Chae says, so it was just her, Hyeri was avoiding just her. Great. “Yeah, Look, I owe you this,” She says placing a usb drive on her desk. “This are the demos… but I don’t think I want them recorded.”

 

“Chae..”

 

“Look, you promised your boss a second album out of me, but I can’t”

 

“You have to. They’ll void your deal. And your songs ar too good to no be recorded and published.”

 

“I miss you.” Chaeyoung said instead. “Everyday I wake up, and I have this ache in my chest. And sometimes I just sleep in because I know when I wake up, you’re not gonna be there.”

 

“I love you too, Chae..” Hyeri admits. “You know that. But I can’t be with you.”

 

“Why?” Chaeyoung shakes her head. “My heart is not conflicted. Hyeri is just a story.”

 

“No it's not, Chae.” Hyeri says, “Even if you think it is right now, one day you’ll realize it is not, and for the sake of your heart and Jennie’s I hope you realize it soon.”