[The next morning, at approximately 11.00am]

It’s the dull throbbing in her head that eventually tugs her out of the murky depth that is her slumber, towards a late morning under sun-soaked sheets. She sits up, rubbing her temples. She groans as she feels her brain ache even more simply from moving. She notices a packet of painkillers and another bottle of raisin tea on her bedside table. She then proceeds to freeze when her eyes land on three blue post-its, next to what is obviously her hangover cure for the morning.

She nervously reaches out and plucks them off one by one to read:

Good morning/afternoon, Unnie! I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now. Is your head hurting a lot? I tried to get you to sober up a bit before you got home and slept, so it would help take the edge off more than without it. But just in case, here’s more raisin tea and painkillers.

You seemed to be having a rough time last night—you were even yelling at the rain! But I thought that was pretty funny and cute hehe :) I don’t know if you remember anything, and if you do, I’m sorry for asking you so many questions. I realised that may come across as prying, and it’s not what I intended.

(P.S. You might’ve also noticed your clothes have changed. I had to, because you were soaked and I didn’t want you to fall sick. You know, you’re a hard person to cooperate with when you’re drunk. Feel better soon, Unnie, and take care! Chat with you later.)

Upon reading the third note, Joohyun glances down and realises that yes, she is indeed out of yesterday’s clothes and in a fresh set of her pyjamas. She flushes. That means Seungwan has seen… The soloist squeaks and grabs her pillow to hide herself, her face feeling hot all of a sudden.

But what if…

Joohyun feels her heart sink to the pits of her stomach and she snatches her phone off her table, pulling up her SNS apps. Her panicking eyes dart across the screen as she refreshes her feeds almost maniacally, but…there’s nothing. No breaking news about Korea’s number one sweetheart going rogue from alcohol intoxication and roaming the streets while screaming at the sky for raining. No scandalous photos of her anywhere either. And no missed calls from an angry Wendy.

She…didn’t take advantage of the situation.

She stops searching. Her phone slides from her loose grip onto her lap as guilt creeps over her mind and begins to call her out for projecting her trust issues onto Seungwan. Bae Joohyun, the past is in the past, you can’t keep trudging it up and pinning it onto people and thinking they’re always out to get you.

Am I wrong for trying to protect myself?

“One day, you’ll see that you’re more than good enough. I’ll prove it to you, Unnie. Just wait a little longer.”

She remembers.

“You will?”

“Yes,” Seungwan nods determinedly, rubbing soothing circles on the back of Joohyun’s hand, “Yes, I will.”

“…How?” Joohyun recalls asking, “How do you prove that sort of thing?”

“In many ways,” Seungwan answers, “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll do whatever I can. Whatever it takes.”

“That’s really sweet,” Joohyun hums contentedly, tightening her grip a little on Seungwan’s hand, “No one’s ever…said they’d do that for me before. Not anyone I know anyway. They’re all gone. Or they’re too far away.”

Joohyun may have had alcohol still flowing inside her, but there’s no mistaking the watery shimmer in Seungwan’s eyes when she’d heard Joohyun’s honest admission. And Joohyun swears she can hear the blonde’s voice shake as she speaks again.

“Now you’ll have me, at least.”

She actually…cares. About me. Not Irene. But me. Just Bae Joohyun.

[Joohyun tries to recall the later happenings of last night]

She doesn’t exactly remember how they got home after, but she does remember fumbling with her house keys because of her disobedient, clumsy fingers. Plus the way Seungwan laughs at her struggle. The blonde takes hold of her hand, steadying it enough for the key to slide smoothly into the lock and turn.

And so Joohyun realises that while the drunk her has grown rather obsessed with Seungwan’s hands, that obsession is starting to seep into the sober her as well.

The blonde guides her to her bedroom and sets her down on her bed.

“I’ll get you some clean clothes, don’t want you falling asleep in these,” Seungwan murmurs as she searches Joohyun’s wardrobe.

She brings a pyjama set over and asks, “Can you change on your own, Unnie?”

Joohyun just blinks slowly at her.

“Okay, nope. You’ve completely lost all of your motor functions,” Seungwan sighs, arms akimbo, “What am I going to do with you?”

As though she’d done it a thousand times before, Seungwan helps remove Joohyun’s top and bra, looking away while wiping the drunk soloist dry with a towel. She calmly helps her slip on her pyjama top and button it skilfully. Likewise, the blonde considerately averts her gaze as Joohyun shimmies her way into the pair of sleep shorts.

While Joohyun dries her own hair as well as her tired arms would allow her to, Seungwan fishes out a bottle of raisin tea and some painkillers from a plastic bag that Joohyun hadn’t noticed before. The blonde sets them down on the bedside table.

“There! All prepared for tomorrow’s hangover,” she reaches out to pat Joohyun’s head and—

It totally wasn’t a dream. The soloist screams into her pillow as she recalls the reality of the very brazen act she herself had committed next.

Joohyun seizes the younger woman’s wrist and pulls her down to the bed on top of her. Seungwan squeaks as she nearly lands on top of Joohyun, her arm stretching out against the headboard at the right time the only thing that saves their faces from crashing into each other. Joohyun stares dazedly at the blonde, entranced by those sweet brown orbs that warmed her up like no other.

Suddenly, a sharp bolt shoots up the back of her neck to her brain and she groans, clutching at her head. In too much pain to pull that stunt again, Joohyun lets Seungwan pull away. Only for the blonde to lean over her and tuck her into bed properly.

Straightening her back, her neighbour fixes her with a playful glare, “If you’re like this when you can’t hold your liquor, you better not get drunk with other people.”

“So I can only get drunk with you?”

Seungwan chuckles good-naturedly, “If you’re not too embarrassed by yourself by the time you wake up tomorrow morning.”

[Back to this morning]

“Oh! My! God! Bae Joohyun, you stupid—!” Joohyun ignores the persistent throbbing in her head, squeezing shut her eyes as she relives the memory from last night again, only feeling the full blow of that promised embarrassment now.

Her phone buzzes in her lap, causing her to quite literally jolt out of her Shame Bae Party™. Her eyes snap down to the screen to see a long text, from none other than Wendy.

[Wendy Manager: Yesterday must’ve been tough on you. I thought I should inform you that for today’s fan-sign, due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict on the venue organiser’s side, it’s been pushed back from 1pm to 4pm. The participating fans and staff involved have already been informed. I know this is less than ideal as that means you’ll be back home 3 hours later than planned, but I do hope this allows you to get some more rest in.]

Another barrage of texts comes in.

[Wendy Manager: I understand if this schedule change is upsetting to you. I won’t hold it against you if you get mad at me. I should’ve been more prepared and stood my ground with the organiser.]

[Wendy Manager: I’m sorry, Irene.]

[Wendy Manager: I will apologise to you in person later too.]

Strangely, however, contrary to what the messages imply, Joohyun doesn’t feel an ounce of anger or even a single pinch of annoyance towards her manager. In fact, it’s relief that greets her upon reading Wendy’s words. Because last night’s bad decisions to get drunk and wander around in the rain would’ve ensured that she entered the fan-sign on her worst if the meet were to be held at its original time.

It’s a side of her she never wants her fans to witness.

Setting aside what’s left of her tattered pride ever since her conflict with Wendy yesterday, she replies.

[Joohyun: I’m not mad.]

[Joohyun: I think I needed the rest anyway.]

[Wendy Manager: It’s good to hear you got the rest you needed. I’ll bring your coffee and donut when I come by and pick you up later at 3pm.]

Joohyun hesitates as she considers the next message she feels extremely tempted to write. After fifteen minutes of intense deliberating, she sighs and starts typing.

[Joohyun: Thank you.]

An uncontrollable grin is plastered to Seungwan’s face as she re-reads the last message Joohyun had sent her.

Thank you.

She said thank you.

She does a little dance in her room and punches the air, unable to hold back her elation, “Woohoo!”

Wait.

Her victory dance comes to an abrupt stop and her hand presses against her chest. She feels her heart kick back at her palm wildly.

Why am I so happy just to get a single ‘thank you’ from her?

Maybe it’s because it’s the first time she’s actually said it.

But is that really why…?

If not, then…

Her hands shoot up to feel her own cheeks, now aware of the ache in them from smiling too much.

“Seulgi did say you’re into cute girls, are you not?”

I can’t believe Seulgi exposed me like that. But…it’s true.

“I see Seulgi was wrong and chic, mature girls are more your type.”

“No one is actually one or the other.”

She’s both.

“First, you complain about how mean she is to you because you’re her new manager and then you start making fun of her for not recognising you last night, and then you start gushing about how you actually had a civil and fun conversation with her after lying about your identity. And I swear, all you’ve talked about the past ten minutes is that she called you ‘Seungwannie’. Face it, Son Seungwan. Your. . Is. Dumb.”

She remembers getting lost in that surreal, sacred moment of watching Joohyun in the rain. Her overwhelming emotions during the intimate conversation she’d had with the soloist in the little corner of that convenience store. The way her heart had thundered loudly in her ears when Joohyun pulled her down and stared into her eyes, their faces barely inches apart.

Then it hits her.

No.

It can’t be.

The blonde lets out a high-pitched yelp and sinks to the floor, her back slumping against the side of her bed as she buries her face into her hands.

I…like Bae Joohyun?!

After several minutes of struggling to process the unprecedented direction her feelings have taken, she peeks from the gap between her fingers at her phone. She feels a stupid, reckless kind of bravery overtake all her senses. Before she can change her mind, she grabs her phone and opens her chat with Joohyun. She scrolls through her favourite sticker pack and selects one. Her thumb hovers over the blue button in the shape of a paper-plane, and she worries her bottom lip nervously.

It’s too much. I shouldn’t.

It’ll be very…brazen of me.

But maybe she’ll finally get the message that I'm not trying to fight with her.

She hits the send button and throws her phone onto her table, groaning in instant regret.

It’s been twelve minutes since her message was “