[ C H A P T E R   N I N E ]

Bumping into each other at a few of their schedules weren’t exactly that awkward for them anymore, at least when they’re away from the cameras and the public eyes. Each time they shared the same schedules, both Eric and Yongsun mentally thanks Byul for shoving that crumpled piece of paper containing Yongsun’s new phone number into Eric’s hand, because god knows how much they’ve been talking ever since then — mainly only phone calls at random time of the day, but that weren’t really just it. 

They weren’t getting back together just yet, but they weren’t trying to stop that from happening either. Perhaps this time, they both just wanted to take it at their own comfortable paces. Majority of those calls they had weren’t exactly the kind of calls that started with i miss you and ended with i love you either, but they both knew whatever they talked about together were just an indirect way of saying those things to each other.

There wasn’t really any specific topic they’d talked about either. Each time the phone rang, there was a new topic to start on and they would just went along with wherever the flow of the conversation was leading them to — sometimes about their lives, sometimes about their works, sometimes about the funny little things they encountered in their lives, sometimes a tipsy call usually only from him which he never really remembered what he said the next day, and perhaps sometimes just to cry at each other in the middle of the night because of all the heavy loads of pressures and stresses on their shoulders. 

It was the kind of calls where they’d be smiling when seeing each other’s name on their phone screens and hurried away to hide somewhere from their families and friends so they could talk, in which it’d always resulted in their friends jokingly screaming at them to stop dating and get back to work, but they’d always insisted that they were just friends — friends who knew each other’s secrets and worries a little bit too much, friends who were just trying to fix what was left behind between them back then. But neither of them was complaining about that.

Being friend is something lovers just can’t do, Byul would always sang this specific line from one of his songs to them every time they opened their mouths to insist that they’re just friends for now. But deep down, they both know she’s right and they have no intention on staying just friends forever either. 

Today was one of those rare days where they’d actually get to attend the same schedule again. Eric still remembered vividly the last time they did back in Cultwo, it wasn’t the most positive but he was glad that it wasn’t entirely too negative either. They exchanged albums, and although her members forged an i love you with three hearts next to it under her autograph so it’d seem like it was from her, Eric didn’t really mind because none of the girls actually knew that Yongsun actually slipped a letter inside the album they gave him.

It was a short thank you for trying to work it out for us, and he had a feeling she was referring to the situation that broke them apart. She knew.

She heard his latest song and she knew, and Eric couldn’t be happier.

They had a recording with an artist who would be engaging them in a self-portrait drawing attempt. Eric was due to join her in drawing first, and he had absolutely no problem with it because she was someone whom he had met before for an interview — and she speaks English, that was a plus for him because interviews in Korean have been stressing and wrecking his brain out these entire time. 

Maybe it was because of the fact they seem a tad bits too close conversing in a foreign language that everyone in the room had troubles understanding in order to save the recording and translators some times, or maybe it was the host’s constant teasing and attempts to force a love line in between him and the artist, but Yongsun was not having any of it.

She took a sip of her water every time the host teased them and tried to play it oblivious, but both Eric and the girls knew that was the last thing Yongsun could do. He stole a few glances at her watching them with a completely stoic face he rarely saw on her, and a few other times he looked in her direction, he caught Byul nudging her to look happy. Eric tried to stop the grin from spreading across his face — last night when they called, she was the one telling him not to be so obvious but looks who was the most obvious one among them now. 

A little laugh escapes his lips, but he tried to play it off that it was at how bad his own drawing was. 

    “You two should really start hanging out, and maybe you can develop a little something. You look really good together.”

He stole another glance, and saw her taking a long sip from her water bottle again. 

    “Thank you, but we’re good with just being friends.” 

He saw the host’s expression fell at his choice of words, but he didn’t really care. The Korean Entertainment Industry is funny this way, they always tried to push love lines between him and anyone he engaged with, they added all of those unnecessary sound effects and slow motions and cherry blossoms explosion next to his face so it’d look like he was the dreamy nation’s boyfriend they tried to make him out to be when all he did was literally just talked. They tried, but perhaps not today — not in front of a particular someone in her new medium-length blonde hairdo finishing almost three bottles of water by herself in a span of fifteen minutes. 

It was almost funny to him when he saw the host’s expression fell again when he asked if Yongsun wanted to be up for the drawing challenge next as a representative from Mamamoo’s side, and she almost deadpanned a no at him. 

    “But, we’ll have Wheein go instead because she’s the best at drawing among us.”

Byul jumps in almost immediately just to save her, and Eric notices the younger girl hissing at her leader when the cameras weren’t on them. 

Eric had no idea how did he let Yongsun’s members convinced him to eat lunch with them at their secret favorite healing place when he was planning to just go straight home and continued working on his songs, but for some reasons, he found himself sitting with them for lunch. It didn’t take him to work out his thoughts much to know that the girls definitely had something up their sleeves for both of them again, but he might be a tad bits too focused on a rather quiet Yongsun constantly stabbing the chicken meat in her bowl rather than on the plans the girls were trying to execute.

He had never seen a jealous Yongsun before, but he’s not complaining about it either. 

He tried to stifled a laugh. Picking up another piece of the chicken they were eating with his chopstick, he brought it to and she stared at him confusedly. He gave her a little shrug and silently prompted her to eat like she was a little kid. Refusing to give in to the smile that was trying to curve on her face, Yongsun muttered a quiet thank you without looking at him. 

    When he excused himself to the bathroom, the girls gave her a funny look. “What are you even getting jealous about? He obviously only cares about you.” 

    “I’m not jealous.” She huffs a little, stuffing another piece of the chicken Eric placed in her bowl into . 

    “Yeah, right.” Byul scoffs. “Check your own expression out when the show airs.” 

When the show finally airs, Yongsun screams so loud her sister accidentally drops the plate she was washing in their kitchen. Yongsun buries herself under five layers of her blankets because all she could see while scrolling through her secret twitter feed was half of her fandom wondering what exactly was happening.