They headed back to Sinb’s waiting room with shy smiles on their faces. Yerin wasn’t sure what was wrong with her heart, it was pounding the whole time they were at the rooftop, it reminded her of their facetime call yesterday night. 

Sinb twisted the doorknob and entered the room first with a wide smile on her face, followed by Yerin who couldn’t help but match the energy of her idol. The male manager turned his body towards them with an endearing smile on his face,

“Did you both eat well?” He asked both of them, Sinb nodded like a child who just got their favourite candy while Yerin only bowed towards him. “Ah, where are my manners, Yerin-ssi, my apologies. My name is Minseok, I’m Sinb’s manager though I’m sure you already knew that. Don’t trouble yourself with formalities, you can just call me Minseok-oppa”

Yerin bowed again towards him to show respect as Minseok introduced himself. “That reminds me, Yerin-ssi, can we talk for a few bit?” 

Yerin’s eyebrows raised in question, was she going to be in trouble? She turned her head towards Sinb, as if telepathically asking the idol if everything was alright. Sinb only nodded and smiled, reassuring her that it was completely fine. There was something about her smile that looked mischievous yet adorable. 

Sinb left her manager and Yerin to talk, plopping herself on the sofa before getting her phone out to go on SNS, Yerin heard a snicker from her.

“So… Yerin-ssi, what do you do for a living besides being a fansite?” Minseok asked the girl.

“I’m just doing freelance work at the moment with my photography, I graduated around a year ago.” 

“How are you paying your bills then? Is freelance work really enough?” 

“Ah… well, I have a savings account that I’m living out of currently, but you’re not too far off. I’m trying to find a job flexible enough so that I can keep up with Sinb’s schedule but you know… there aren’t many.”

Minseok was really deep in his thoughts that there was about a minute of silence between them that Yerin had noticed, she was wondering why he was asking her these questions.

“Hm… then how about you work for Sinb instead?” Seokmin asked before continuing, “Well, you’ll be working under us, but you’ll be assigned to Sinb, how does that sound?” 

Yerin’s mouth falls open, her face clearly confused and unsure if this was real or not. Is Minseok really offering a job right now? To work with Sinb at that?

She tried to find words to respond to the manager, but failed as she couldn’t get her thoughts to form proper sentences. Minseok predicted this, so he spoke for Yerin instead, “Okay, what about you think about when you’re at home. When you’re ready to give me an answer, give me a call, you already have my number, so for now…” he said, leaning closer towards Yerin before continuing,

“Have fun with Sinb for me, she hasn’t stopped talking about you ever since she laid her eyes on you.”

Since Yerin couldn’t form any sentences anyway, she remained silent and Minseok-oppa gave her a playful wink, then left probably to do some stuff.

The girl turned around and saw Sinb yet again, just like when she entered the room for the first time earlier, her eyes glued to her smartphone’s screen. Her eyebrows furrowed with her lips pouted forward. It was really cute to Yerin. 

The idol felt a pair of eyes on her so she looked up and met with Yerin’s short stare, she gave Yerin a small and patted to her left side, inviting her to sit. Yerin shook her head and snapped back to reality and moved her feet. 

She sat next to Sinb, again leaving a comfortable space between them, her hands stretched out to her knees, her lips pursed together as she had a lot of things on her mind currently, not just about Sinb but everything that’s going on. Yerin let out an audible sigh.

Sinb scooted closer towards Yerin, their shoulders touching. With concerned eyes, Sinb felt like something was wrong. “Is everything okay? Did Minseok-oppa say something weird to you? I can go kill him right now just say the words…!” 

Yerin shook her head to deny the allegations that have been made towards the male manager, Sinb’s expression relaxed a bit. 

“It’s just a lot to take in, I think,” Yerin tried to express her feelings, “but I’m fine, I think I just need to keep myself in the present, that’s all. I get lost in my thoughts easily it seems…”

Sinb nodded understandingly. “Anything I can do to help with that?” Sinb directed her gaze to somewhere on the coffee table in front of them, “I know it probably sounds just plain ignorant especially coming from me, but if there’s anything I can do to make things better for you please let me know…”

Yerin stayed mum for a bit, trying her best not to get lost in her thoughts while still thinking of something that could help her.

“There might be one thing…” Yerin said as it came to her mind, Sinb nodded her head pleading for Yerin to continue, “Is it okay if I don’t attend the fansigning today?”

Sinb’s eyes soften towards Yerin’s. 

“But I’ll stay here if you or your managers don’t mind!! And I don’t mind waiting for you, unless you want me to go home.... Then I’ll do that!!” Yerin suggested, trying her best to not make Sinb feel bad.

“All I want is for you to be comfortable and at ease, Yerin-ssi. I’m sure nobody minds you staying back here for the rest of the event, but if you feel like you want to go home and rest there instead, that’s fine by me too. Whatever works for you…”

Yerin nodded knowingly, her lips a little pouty. Sinb couldn’t help but smile when she saw how the girl was thinking so hard, though she feels a little bad for putting her under this much pressure. 

“I think I’ll just stay here until you’re finished since… tonight is the… you know… at your apartment..?” Yerin said shyly, though her thought process was purely only calculative, or so she hoped.

Sinb chuckled lightly. “Of course, Minseok-oppa even made sure to prepare some more food for you just in case you get hungry later” 

“Ah… that’s really nice of him” 

“I think he’s very fond of you, Yerin-ssi. Probably because I don’t make friends well, even with other idols I tend to distance myself so he was probably really glad I have someone else to talk to other than the staff members and himself…”

Yerin relaxed her figure as she nodded at Sinb’s words, her body language felt more at ease now and Sinb was glad, “So, how was your night yesterday? I noticed you slept a little late?” 

“Besides the fact that you facetimed me--” Yerin let out a half chuckle and sigh, “it was the usual just preparing for the next fansigning night routine… Transferring photos and videos, uploading them as a backup…”

Then, Sinb’s interest peaked. “Maybe this is too much for me to ask…” she began and Yerin gave her a look. 

“You asked me to dinner, Eunbi-ssi...” Yerin chuckled lightly. 

“That… is true. But if it’s not too much of a breach… May I take a look at the photos you’ve taken yesterday…?”

Yerin tilted her head sideways, Sinb’s puppy eyes staring right into hers. She couldn’t help but melt at the sight, now apparent to her that the idol was indeed younger than her by a few years. She couldn’t say no to Hwang Eunbi’s puppy eyes now could she?

So Yerin got up from the sofa and went to fetch her iPad Pro from her bag, she heard Sinb squealed in excitement like a child. 

When Yerin got back to Sinb, the idol was smiling the widest she’s ever seen her smile, her eyes shined with eagerness and glazed with animation. The girl only smiled as she sat down next to her, no space left in between them so that Sinb could view the tablet in her hand with ease.

Her lockscreen was a photo of Sinb that she took herself, it was one of her favourite shots. Sinb’s eyebrows shot up, “That’s one of my favourite photos that you’ve taken of me!” the idol exclaimed.

Yerin only remained in her posture and a small smile crept on her lips. The iPad unlocked with it’s Face ID feature and she opened her Google Drive where she stored all her photos.

“Do you want to see everything or do you want to see what I’ve picked out so far from the bunch?” Yerin asked the girl,  her eyes remained on the screen as she was reminded of what she did earlier this morning.

“Let’s see what you’ve chosen first,” Sinb snickered through her words, her aegyo voice apparent to Yerin’s hearing. Her heart swelled.

Yerin opened one of the folders she had made earlier this morning, a few dozen pictures loaded. The idol’s mouth falls open, in awe, with Yerin handing her the tablet. She looked up to meet Yerin’s encouraging eyes, and took it into her hand. 

She tapped on the first picture and it loaded instantly. Then she swiped left to load the next, her eyes roaming to every inch of the photo, taking it as much as she could with her eyes. Yerin noticed the long stare towards the screen, she wondered what Sinb thought of the photos. 

“Sorry if they’re not at the best quality like you see on Twitter, it’s not the full quality because it’s on this app, and I haven’t tweaked around with editing yet…” Yerin said.

Sinb only remained silent as she focused on the screen, though she gave Yerin a couple of small nods to indicate that she heard her. 

The idol knew how talented Yerin was, but seeing this part of the process awed her, she couldn’t wrap her mind around it since this was a whole different field than her own. So many questions came through her mind as she scanned through the various pictures Yerin had hand picked. Like how was she able to do this? What camera and lenses did she use? Did the settings matter? Would she be able to do the same thing and get the same results? Sinb was a calculative person, to say the least, she loved learning new things and this was definitely something she’s been dying to learn about since she loves taking pictures in general. 

She looked up to meet Yerin’s endearing gaze towards her, and as if Yerin had read her mind, once again she got up from the sofa and came back with her whole backpack this time. Yerin took out the body of her camera and set it down on the coffee table in front of them. Then she opened another zipper and took out a small lens. She assembled them together, the sound of the lens clicking into place satisfied both of them. 

Yerin switched the camera on, tweaked a little with the settings, making sure the ISO and exposure was set to fit the lighting environment that they were in, then, she offered Sinb to take a look. 

“Whoa…” was the only thing that left Sinb’s mouth. If Yerin was going to be perfectly honest, she wasn’t sure why Sinb is this excited and curious about such a thing. She was surrounded by cameras 24/7 because of the life she lived. But perhaps it’s because Sinb has never been behind the camera that it amazes her to no end.

After looking around through the viewfinder, Sinb scooted away from Yerin at a reasonable distance and aimed the lens towards the girl. Without any more thought, she pressed the shutter button and took a picture of Yerin. The preview of the picture was shown and Sinb couldn’t help but smile so wide at the picture of Yerin, her expression confused, with her eyes opened slightly wider and eyebrows that rose upwards. 

It was so cute to Sinb that she squealed in amusement, Yerin, though, couldn’t differentiate or tell whether Sinb was excited because she took a photo with the camera or she was excited because of the picture.

Sinb snickered looking at Yerin’s current expression.  Her eyes going back and forth between the preview than the girl. “Look…” she says as she turns the screen of the camera towards Yerin. 

Yerin shook her head in dismissal, she didn’t like having her photos taken. “What? You look pretty!” Sinb said simply, returning her attention to the camera. The girl felt a rush of blood come through her pale cheeks, if her counting abilities didn’t fail her, Sinb has called her pretty twice… 

It was only a simple compliment and yet here Yerin was all flustered while the girl toyed with her camera some more. She tried to shove those thoughts to the back of her mind and focus in the present like she said she needed to do.

“Is there a way to transfer the photos from this camera here directly to my phone or something, Yerin-ssi?” Sinb asks while handing the camera back to Yerin.

Without questioning her back, Yerin took the camera and opened the sharing setting on her camera. Then she got her phone out of her pocket and opened the app, 

“This camera is synced to my phone, so any photo that I take on the camera will show up here, see,” Yerin says as she shows Sinb her phone, then hands it to her so she can have a better look. The idol smiled wide.

Before Yerin could say anything else, Sinb saved the picture of her on her phone, then took her own phone into her other hand and unlocked it. She tapped the share button and soon enough, that picture of Yerin was AirDropped into the idol’s phone.

Sinb couldn’t help but smile at her own tech savvy self, she handed back the girl’s phone. Yerin shook her head with her cheeks burning more. 

For the next hour, Yerin showed Sinb the many things she knew about photography, thoroughly explaining to her about every bit of how everything worked. Sinb was intrigued, but she also loved hearing Yerin talk about something she’s so passionate about. She can’t believe that the girl was actually spending her time and talent on herself when Yerin can actually get a better job with the talent she has.

Minseok-oppa returned in the midst of the two deep in conversation about the various types of lenses Yerin has, checking up on them and asking Sinb to get ready for her fansigning event for the day. There was a tint of disappointment tugging at Yerin as she saw Sinb get up from the sofa, who knew she could actually have a normal conversation with the girl without stuttering. She didn’t even notice how comfortable she had gotten until Minseok-oppa came.

Noticing Yerin’s expression, Sinb took Yerin’s hand and dragged her out of the room for a bit. Minseok-oppa knows exactly where Sinb was taking her so he didn’t bat an eye. 

A minute later, they were backstage. The room was almost pitch black except for a couple of headlights, staff can be seen walking around and doing their rounds of checkup to make sure everything was in place, large wires on the floor that they had to be careful of. Then Sinb whispered, “Follow me” as she walked further. 

They peaked through the curtains, they were by the side of the stage. Fans can be seen eagerly waiting for the idol, Yerin even recognises some of her fellow fansite friends. This is so bizarre…

Sinb giggled, “I love watching them settle down and see the room fill up,” she said. 

“Why is that?” Yerin asked with curiosity.

“It’s just fun, sometimes I can’t believe all of them are here for me…”

“Well, Eunbi-ssi, perhaps you are unaware but you are actually the highlight of most of their days. All of us who are fans of you, love you for you and your music. We want to support you as much as we can, so here we are.”

Sinb turned her head to face Yerin, she didn’t expect Yerin’s face to be so close to hers, their lips almost touching, though (un)fortunately Yerin was quick enough to pull her head back to prevent that from happening. Both of their cheeks grew redder. 

Startled, Sinb removed her gazed from Yerin and fake coughed. “Uhm… thank you Yerin-ssi. I guess that could be a reason…” she replied to Yerin’s kind words earlier, expressing her gratitude. 

“It is the exact reason, Eunbi-ssi, I know it for a fact because that’s how I feel too. I’m speaking for all of us, I suppose, whether you want to believe or not…”

The idol could only nod towards the girl. 

“I-I think I should go prep and touch up my makeup… Um… will you be fine on your own?” Sinb asked the girl whose face was still quite close to hers. 

“I’ll be fine, I think. I’m just scared I’ll fall asleep…” Yerin said lightheartedly, though there was some honesty to her words. She falls asleep everywhere and anywhere.

Sinb giggled, her heart rate raising as she saw Yerin’s eye smile appear as she said those words. She can’t believe how pretty Yerin could be, especially under these headlights that barely shined on her face, emphasizing her complexion and somehow Yerin looked like she was glowing. 

And there it was again, that feeling of her heart tightening and pounding at the same time. Sinb only felt this feeling a couple of times, and one of the first times was when Yerin had first revealed her face to her a few months back. 

Since then, she’s been addicted to it.