Tuesday Night, Winter Break

Random street in Suwon.

After finishing their meal at the hot pot restaurant, the girls found themselves wandering the streets looking for somewhere to get dessert.

Naeun pursed her lips and poured over her phone as she led the way down the sidewalk.

"That's funny. I swear there was a café down here somewhere…" She said, frowning at the map on her screen.

Hayoung looked over Naeun's shoulder and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Unnie you have the map rotated the wrong way."

She plucked Naeun's phone from her hands and quickly tried to fix the map.

Namjoo watched the exchange with crossed arms.

"Great. Leave it to Naeun unnie to get us lost." She said in a huff.

"Hey at least we didn't end up in a dark alley." Hayoung pointed out.

"And besides," She continued. "We have the tough unnies to beat up any weirdos so we're safe."

Hayoung handed Naeun back her phone.

"See, it's not too far we just need to go down one more street." She said.

Naeun looked at the map again and smiled.

"Oh I see now! Yes it's that way."

She started walking again and the girls followed her to the end of the block. They arrived at the crosswalk and Bomi ran to push the button.

It pinged weakly as Bomi banged it multiple times in an attempt to make the light change faster, which of course it didn't.

"Aish…these lights always take forever." Bomi grumbled as she continued pushing the button.

She looked up and noticed a flyer taped up on the pole. It looked to be an event poster for a club that was featuring somebody named DJ Michael.

 She stared at the picture for a moment then her eyes widened.

"HEY LOOK IT'S ILHOONIE!" She yelled.

"What?! Where?"

The girls crowded around Bomi to get a closer look at the poster and sure enough, it was the unmistakable face of Jung Ilhoon.

Eunji snorted.

"Bwahaha DJ Michael? Is that what the brat is calling himself now?" She asked.

"Looks like it…but at least it's an improvement from DJ Gwiyomi." Hayoung replied.

Chorong cringed slightly at Hayoung's words.

"DJ Gwiyomi? Eww that's so cheesy." She said.

The others made similar expressions of distaste except for Naeun. 

"I thought it was cute…" Naeun said softly to no one in particular.

"Oh please unnie…you have such good taste in everything but why are you like this whenever it comes to Ilhoon oppa?" Namjoo sighed.

The light finally turned and the girls began to cross the street.

When they reached the other side Bomi paused and did a quick search on her phone.

"You know that club isn't too far from here." She said thoughtfully. "Maybe if we just skip dessert…"

Chorong could already tell what Bomi was thinking and she didn't like the idea. Not one bit.

"No. We are absolutely NOT going there." She said firmly.

"But why not??? I wanna go spy on Ilhoon and besides, it's girls night. We're supposed to have fun." Bomi whined.

Chorong looked around at the others for support.

"You guys aren't seriously going to let her drag us to the club are you?" She said threateningly.

Hayoung, Namjoo and Naeun looked at each other and shuffled their feet meekly as they avoided Chorong's dominating gaze.

Eunji laughed and patted Chorong's shoulder.

"Oh loosen up, the kids are just curious because they haven't been to any clubs before." She said.

"But that wasn't part of the plan!" Chorong protested.

Eunji sighed.

"Unnie it's fineee let Bomi take them. You don't have to go if you don't want to. I'll stay with you and we can go to the café together."

Eunji gave Chorong an inviting smile and Chorong hesitated before sighing reluctantly.

"Okay fine, but be careful in there!" Chorong said, eyeing the younger girls pointedly.

Hayoung and Naeun nodded obediently while Namjoo rolled her eyes and said, "Yes mother." Rather sarcastically.

Bomi whooped.

"WAAH we're going to the club let's go let's go!" She bounced off in the direction of the club with Hayoung, Naeun and Namjoo in tow.

"Yah! Don't forget to text us when you guys are done!" Eunji yelled after Bomi.

Bomi waved without looking back and Eunji laughed.

"Ah our Bomi is a wild one isn't she?" She said to Chorong.

"Mmm…" Chorong replied.

Eunji smiled at Chorong then took her hand and started walking again towards the café. Eventually they found it nestled between a cosmetic shop and a small boutique.

As they went inside, Chorong looked around. The place looked pretty new. She figured it must've opened while she'd been away in China.

Eunji wasted no time hurrying over to the pastry case.

"Unnie look at the pastries aren't they cute?" She asked.

Chorong came closer next to Eunji and peered through the glass.

Inside the case were several kinds of small cakes, donuts, and cream puffs decorated with little animal faces drawn in chocolate.

"Omo…they're adorable." Chorong gasped.

"I think I'll have one of those puffs." Eunji said. "What about you?" She asked.

"I don't know, everything looks good." Chorong replied looking back and forth between all desserts in the case.

"Okay take your time I'm gonna order first." Eunji said.

Chorong continued gazing at the sweets while Eunji got her turtle shaped cream puff. It really was difficult to choose when everything looked so tasty. Chorong chewed her lip and pondered her decision before finally settling on the matcha swiss roll with cat ears and chocolate whiskers.

Eunji paid for the two of them then they took their desserts and went to a table near the back.

After they sat down, Eunji quickly snapped a picture of her cream puff then started the custard.

Chorong felt a bit awkward as she took a small bite of her cake. There was so much she wanted to ask Eunji now that they were alone but she wondered if it would be too nosy.

"It can't hurt just to ask once…" 

Chorong cleared .

"Eunji-ya."

"Hmm?"

"I heard you got scouted after the play." Chorong said carefully.

"Ah…yes...I did..." Eunji replied.

Chorong nodded and looked back at her cake.

"Congrats."

Eunji put down her cream puff and gave Chorong a slightly apologetic look.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it before. I was worried that you might be upset."

"Oh no it's fine, I'm glad you got it." Chorong said quickly.

There was an awkward silence between them as Eunji searched for a way to respond.

"Actually…I didn't take it." She finally said.

Chorong's fork paused in the middle of slicing her cake. 

"What do you mean you didn't take it?" She asked in surprise.

Eunji sighed.

"I couldn't do that to you unnie…" She said, "I know how much it would've meant for you to get chosen and it wouldn't be fair for me to take the offer when I was just doing the play for fun."

"Eunji-ya…" Chorong said, momentarily lost for words.

"I even asked them to reconsider you." Eunji continued. "But they were insistent on trying to recruit me alone so I turned them down."

Chorong shook her head and tried to process what Eunji was saying.

"But it was such a good opportunity you didn't have to..." She said.

Eunji smiled ruefully.

"Unnie it's okay, I've been wanting to focus on my singing anyways. I'm just really sorry because it could've been such a good chance for you."

Chorong suddenly felt incredibly ashamed for the thoughts she'd had towards Eunji before and she started tearing up.

"Eunji-ya…" She sniffed.

"Oh unnie don't cry!" Eunji said in a panicked voice.

She rushed around the table as Chorong hung her head and tried to hide her face.

"Please don't cry I didn't mean to upset you. I'm so sorry I've been a bad friend." Eunji said sorrowfully. 

Chorong shook her head as she wiped her eyes.

"No, I was the bad friend Eunji-ya…I resented you for being so good at everything and getting all the recognition when you were actually thinking about my feelings and being so nice to me all this time." She cried.

Eunji swallowed back her own swelling emotions and patted Chorong's back.

"Aigoo our poor unnie you always work so hard for your dream and I went and stole the spotlight I'm sorry…" She repeated.

They sat hugging each other until Chorong finally managed to calm her sniffles.

"Oh dear…I'm sorry I cried all over your nice jacket." Chorong whimpered.

Eunji chuckled and shook her head.

"Don't worry about the jacket. Here take this." She handed Chorong a napkin.

"Thanks…" Chorong sniffed with a small smile as she took it and softly blew her nose.

"There that's better isn't it?" Eunji asked.

She thumped Chorong on the back rather loudly and Chorong squeaked in surprise.

"Aish…" Chorong laughed as she hiccupped and finished wiping her nose.

She looked at Eunji and they both cracked up.

Eunji held up a pinky.

"Forgive each other?" She asked.

Chorong nodded and the two girls locked pinky fingers with lightened hearts. 

--------

A/N  Some Eunrong crumbs? Man it's been a busy weekend...ah...had family stuff and then watching Eunji's concert and last night Peniel noticed my pilates memes on twitter HAHAHA a lot has happened but here we are. 

Can we just appreciate this girl for a moment....sigh....