[7 years ago]

Joohyun pushes past the curtains into the makeshift waiting room. The loud bass continues to reverberate through the walls into the darkness of the room. But it does nothing to drown out the fearful worry in her mind.

Her best friend has been missing ever since her solo showcase. Not that she hasn’t wandered off before, but Joohyun senses that this time, it must be really bad. She had seen her best friend stride out just before the end of Joohyun’s performance, under the pretence of going to the washroom. She knows it so, because she had always stayed to wait for Joohyun to finish, even though she’d complain non-stop about her bursting bladder.

Joohyun’s eyes strain against pitch black. It’s useless, she realises. So just as she turns to head in the general direction of the light switch, she hears a sob from right across the room. She holds her breath. The sobs continue, a messy rhythm of chokes and sniffles.

It’s her.

“Neul-ah…” Joohyun calls out, her voice almost inaudible, as though any louder would spook her friend and make her run.

The sobs don’t stop to acknowledge Joohyun’s presence. So she follows them to their source, curving around chairs and tables in the darkness. She can’t see in the dark, but she knows she’s there, in front of her. So she reaches out and rests her right hand on her friend’s shoulder. It trembles under her touch for a minute as the girl continues to cry.

Then it stops.

Joohyun’s shoulders relax, as she thinks of what to say to comfort her seemingly broken friend. Suddenly, a cold hand grips her right wrist and she feels the other girl stand up brusquely, rushing her backwards and slamming her back into the edge of the make-up table. She grunts in pain as a sharp jolt spreads from her lower back where it had come into contact with the table edge.

Joohyun doesn’t need the lights to see that the girl in front of her is no longer the best friend she knows. In place of a sunny disposition and bright laughter, she feels a jet-black, bitter and tearful rage engulf whatever’s left of the girl she grew up with.

She feels the grip on her wrist tighten painfully and she lets out a gasp, “Neul-ah…you’re hurting me.”

“Not as much as you’ve hurt me.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“I asked you! I begged you! I pleaded with you to give me a chance, to not leave me behind! But you’re so cruel, you know that?” Her best friend’s voice turns into a vicious snarl, “Joohyun always has to be better than everyone at everything.”

Joohyun struggles against her hold, “I­— What’s gotten into you, Neul-ah?!”

“Stop calling me that, it’s like poison to my ears when I know you’ve always wanted me to lose out to you. Every. Single. Time,” the girl chuckles darkly. Brokenly.

“That’s not—! I don’t understand!” Joohyun feels tighten with desperation, “Help me understa—”

“I hate you so, so much, Hyunnie,” her best friend takes on a sickly sweet tone as she releases her hold on Joohyun, “I wish I never knew you. Do you understand now?”

The harsh declaration slams into Joohyun’s chest, shattering her heart the same way a rock crashes through glass.

Before the girl can leave however, Joohyun seizes her arm, pulling her back, “I’m not leaving you behind—!”

A resounding slap echoes through the room. Joohyun eyes are squeezed shut, her left cheek stinging sharply from being struck. Her best friend wrenches her arm from Joohyun’s hold.

“I don’t ever want to see you again, Bae Joohyun.”

The same day of their trainee showcase, Mr. Jang announces Joohyun’s solo debut to the attendees. That night, Joohyun returns to her shared dorm with her best friend, only to find it vacant of the girl’s belongings. She stops showing up for practice the next day. Or the next. Every phone call is met with a pre-recorded message that the number is no longer in use.

Joohyun’s best friend leaves the company like a weak breeze blows through the window. As though she’d never been there in the first place.

“I wasn’t strong enough,” Joohyun’s voice trembles, her eyes puffy from crying, “I wasn’t strong enough to make her stay.”

“That’s not—”

“It is!” The soloist protests, “If I’d been strong enough not to do everything he demanded of me, she would still be here.”

“Unnie,” Seungwan sighs and settles down opposite Joohyun, “Do you…really think so?”

The soloist blinks and looks down at her hands in her lap, mulling over the blonde’s question, “I…don’t know.”

“That’s okay.”

Joohyun’s eyes shoot back up to meet Seungwan’s gentle gaze, not expecting to hear that from her friend. She searches those sincere, brown eyes, but there’s no pity in them. Only wordless understanding. As if Seungwan herself knows exactly what it’s like to be in her position.

Her neighbour takes in a deep breath and continues, quiet, “It’s okay to not know.”

Seungwan slowly stretches out her palm through the bars of her railing towards Joohyun. The soloist stares at the blonde’s hand briefly, before she reaches out and takes it, their fingers intertwining. In that moment, Joohyun finds her craving for connection satisfied in the young woman in front of her.

“I’m still here,” Seungwan’s fingers lightly envelope her hand, “I can’t promise I can take away your pain. But I will help you carry it when you feel tired. If you’ll let me.”

“Seungwan…” Joohyun breathes her name, a weak whisper.

A part of Joohyun tries to tug her away from Seungwan’s hold in that moment. You’re getting too close. Stop.

Seungwan senses the soloist’s hesitance. She wants to take her words back at first, because if there’s anything that the slight downturn of Joohyun’s lips can tell her, it’s that she’s made her uneasy. But as she watches the thoughts battle in the other woman’s mind, she decides she will just sit, and quietly wait.

So she calms her breaths down to deep and slow. She feels the tension in Joohyun dissipate as the soloist unconsciously starts to follow her breathing rhythm. For five minutes, their fingers remain interlocked, their breaths rising and falling together.

Joohyun finally finds the courage to speak, “Haneul. Her name is Haneul.”

Seungwan blinks at her, surprised that the soloist would share such intimate information with her.

“I’ve never shared that with anyone before, Seungwan,” Joohyun admits softly, “Truth be told… I’m…really scared.”

The blonde gives Joohyun’s hand a reassuring squeeze, “You’re trying, Unnie. That’s all that matters.”

[Two days later, at approximately 8.30am]

Joohyun wakes up to the constant buzzing of her phone. With an irritated groan, she sits up, throwing off her blanket haphazardly. It must be at least a hundred texts coming in if the device vibrates like it’s going to blow. She glares at her phone.

Of course.

Of course it’s Wendy.

She snatches her phone off the table and pulls open the chat app.

[Wendy Manager: Good morning, Joohyun!]

[Wendy Manager: So remember that game I won on Idol Square?]

[Wendy Manager: I looked at the schedule and today’s the best day to claim my winnings.]

[Wendy Manager: Starting from now, you’ll have to do what I say today!]

Joohyun growls and begins typing when another message comes in.

[Wendy Manager: Also, I’m filming my screen with the camera right now, so you can’t really say no.]

[Wendy Manager: Sorry, I don’t make the rules]

The soloist stares at the mocking texts, dumbfounded. Her manager thought through this wake-up call way too well. She sighs and backspaces, sending a different message in place.

[Joohyun: Fine.]

[Wendy Manager: Perfect!]

[Wendy Manager: Okay, here’s my 1st order of the day]

[Wendy Manager: Take your morning routine a little easier today. I’ll pick you up at 9.30. We can afford to make our way over to LR a bit later, since your first and only official schedule of the day with the company is dance practice.]

[Wendy Manager: Which brings me to my 2nd order]

[Wendy Manager: You have to wear the T-shirt I bought for you]

[Joohyun: What makes you think it’s not with my dirty laundry right now?]

[Wendy Manager: Because Manager Seo said you love doing laundry and there’s no way you’d leave any piece unwashed for more than five days.]

[Wendy Manager: It’s been more than a week.]

Joohyun can sense the manager’s know-it-all smirk and half of her wants to find the blonde and smack that smile off her face there and then. That said, she doesn’t actually know where the blonde lives.

Well, who cares? I’ll just kill her when I see her later.

[At approximately 9.30am]

Joohyun is already waiting at the pick-up point when Wendy pulls up in the car. Like a passing thought, she notes that the blonde manager looks rather rugged up in a thick olive green bomber jacket for a day with decent temperatures. She gets in ungracefully and slams the car door shut, returning Wendy’s -eating grin with the most threatening glare she can muster at the rear-view mirror.

“Nice shirt.”

“Just. Drive.”

Wendy turns to the back, pointing the camera at Joohyun, “My next order! You have to sit next to me in the car whenever we’re travelling. I don’t feel like being a cab driver today.”

Joohyun groans inwardly. Who the hell gave her this much power?!

The first culprit that comes to mind is none other than Kang Seulgi. But she notes that the producer had only offered to embarrass Wendy by making in her appear in front of the cameras for the show. The Jenga win was never promised.

Because I wanted to win so badly, I—

Joohyun lets out a defeated huff and exits the car, coming round the front of the vehicle to get into the shotgun seat. She gets back in and slams the door again. Wendy flinches a little from the loud bang. The soloist puts on her seatbelt and folds her arms, “Done. Happy?”

The blonde’s eyes dart down to the words on Joohyun’s shirt, the camera in her hand following suit, “So happy.”

“I swear, Son Wendy, if you don’t start driving now, I’m gonna make sure you can’t see out your eyes for the next two weeks.”

“Hey! You can’t say that on camera!” Wendy protests, “People will think you’re a really violent person—”

Joohyun raises her clenched fist wordlessly, giving the air a few test swings.

“W-Which you’re n-not! N-Not violent at all!”

The manager wastes no time putting the camera away. She scrambles to switch the gear and step on the gas, pulling away from the apartment building.

[At approximately 2:00pm]

Wendy pauses to stretch her arms after she stepping out of the company building’s lift lobby into the carpark. She lets out a rather loud, obnoxious yawn. Joohyun jabs a finger sharply at Wendy’s shoulder, “You’ve been wearing that jacket all day. Even in the studio.”

“Uh, because it’s cold?”

“We’re indoors. And it’s not even that cold outside right now.”

Beat.

“You’re hiding something.”

“Why?” Wendy laughs nervously, “What ever gave you that idea?”

“Son Wendy,” Joohyun gives her right shoulder a couple of warm-up rolls, her hand clenched into a fist yet again, “You better spill whatever dumb plan you have up your sleeve today or else…”

“Okay, okay!” Wendy s her jacket with panicky hands.

The green fabric parts ways to reveal white underneath. It’s a T-shirt just like hers. Except with red sleeve cuffs and a red collar, and the words “So What?” printed boldly on the front in the same red.

“You…” Joohyun really wants to strangle her manager now.

As if the “So Happy” shirt isn’t already bad enough, she decides to humiliate me even more by wearing a matching shirt like! Like we’re—!

Like we’re a couple?

No!

“It was supposed to be a surprise!” Wendy whines and pulls her jacket back over her shirt, “I was gonna show you after properly enacting more of my Kang Seulgi-given power!”

“You tell your best friend I will kill her the next time I see her.”

“Pfft, get in line. I’ll be the first to kill her for pulling that stunt on me,” Wendy counters nonchalantly, before pausing, “And you! You were in on it too!”

“I—”

“To think you’d teamed up with Seul!” The blonde chortles, “You definitely ended up with the short end of the stick for that one, ha!”

There goes her raised fist.

“Son Wendy, you—!”

Wendy whips out the camera and starts recording, “You have to be kind to me today!”

Joohyun growls in annoyance, before she lets her hand fall to her side in defeat. The manager now armed with Idol Square’s camera, the soloist knows she doesn’t stand a chance against the blonde today.

Just for today. It’s just one day. I will endure this bull-tery for a day.

“Of course!” She flashes a tight-lipped grin at her manager, “Why would I not be kind to you…like any other day.”

And after today…I will kill Son Wendy. And then Kang Seulgi.

She feels Wendy’s hand grab hers, tugging her along insistently towards the car, “That’s more like it! Come on, let’s head to our first stop!”

Eyes flitting down to the warmth encircling her hand and then back up to the manager’s brilliant smile, Joohyun’s murderous resolve threatens to fizzle out.

Or not.

When Wendy had said she’d wanted to “properly enact her Kang Seulgi-given power” today, this was definitely not what Joohyun expected. She stares, awestruck, at the bright rows of noisy game machines, all battling for her attention. There’s not another soul in sight except for the arcade manager. Wendy stands next to her, arms akimbo and feet shoulder-length apart, proudly taking in the result of her immaculate planning.

She points the camera at Joohyun for a moment, capturing the look of childlike wonder on the soloist’s face. She then pans the camera across the entire arcade, “Stop one, ReVe Fest, the land of games galore!”

The arcade manager approaches her and she bows to him, “Thank you for preparing this so well!”

He grins, “Anything for a well-paying customer.”

Joohyun suddenly snaps out of her trance, whipping around to face Wendy, “You paid for all of this?!”

The manager waves off her surprise dismissively, “Calm down. The company did. It’s for your promotional activity with Idol Square after all. Not even three months of my manager pay could afford to book this whole place for five hours.”

“Five hours?!”

“Yeah,” Wendy raises a brow, the right corner of her lip lifting, “So you can play to your heart’s content.”

Just as the excited soloist shifts to bolt over to the nearest game machine, the blonde catches her elbow, stopping her in her tracks. She laughs, “Okay, hold your horses, you overgrown child. It’s like you’ve never set foot inside an arcade before.”

“I’ve…never, actually.”