Jo Yuri. 16. The Enemy of Dirty Dishes.


Kang Hyewon. 17. Frying-Pan Warrior


Choi Yena. 17. Window Ornament.


Miyawaki Sakura. 20. Brilliance In Human form.


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Vanilla Sunshine
Chapter 3: Angel Through The Windows

 

It was a beautiful day to be washing dishes.

Well, not really.

But, Yuri had to admit she was in a particularly good mood today. Wrist deep in soap and dirty cutlery, she finds herself absentmindedly humming a tune that she heard on TV recently. A jingle for a commercial or something. It was amazing wasn’t it? How a song that you only heard for 15 seconds could be stuck in your head for an entire week. Yuri always found music to be a fascinating subject.

She’s dabbled around with music before. Youtube tutorials could go a long way when trying to teach oneself how to play an acoustic guitar. Maybe in another life she could have been a singer! Oh what a fanciful daydream that is, eh? Yuri imagined herself singing to an entire concert hall functioning at full capacity, thousands of ears listening attentively to every note that she crooned out.

Ah, but it was nothing more than a daydream. Yuri blinks and suddenly the faceless masses and the concert hall disappears, and she was back working the kitchens of Kim’s Golden Eatery. She did not mind it one bit however. 3 months into this job and she has to say that she loved it. It was fun. Her boss was great, the pay was decent, the uniform was cute and she got to do it with her best friend.

What more could a teenager want?

As an even added bonus, Yuri was pretty darn good at her job too. They didn’t really trust her to cook anything since the last time she accidentally set off the fire alarm while trying to boil water, but she was pretty adept at doing dishes. Heck, she would argue that she was the best spoon-cleaner that Incheon had to offer!

Jo Yuri, Princess of Plates, they should be calling her. Where were her flowers, where was her crown?

Yuri holds a fork up, allowing the sunlight creeping in through the large window in front of her to glint off the shiny metal utensil. Sparkling clean. As all utensils should be. Twinkling like stars underneath the grimy kitchen lights.

“Is that star looking at me too? Wouldn’t it be looking at me?”

Yuri laughed at herself for suddenly breaking into a melancholic Heize song on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Remembering that she was alone back here, with Hyewon and her boss out tending to customers in front, Yuri decides to just enjoy herself and continue singing the rest of the song.

Her voice carries out the window in front of her and into the dank alley outside, and she was careful to adjust her volume for fear of disturbing any of the other patrons.

It was funny how she could find this much peace in singing while doing the dishes. Everything felt right with the world. Yuri would even go so far as to say that in this very moment—

“YOU’RE AMAZING!!”

“GAHHH WHAT WHO HUH?!” Yuri yells out in shock, dropping a plate a little too un-gently into the sink in surprise and shattering it into unrecoverable pieces. She recoiled backwards from the sudden loud voice that came out of nowhere that belonged to—to this person who had stuck her head in through the kitchen window??

“You! Wow! That voice is angelic! Am I dreaming?!” The stranger asks, before proceeding to pinch herself hard on the cheek. “OW! I’m not! You’re still here and you’re still real!”

What on Earth?

Who was this weirdo? And why was her head sticking in through the window? Why was she looking at Yuri with those stars in her eyes? Why was she so loud? Questions. All of these questions. This strange girl had caused Yuri to break a plate. There ain’t NO WAY Yuri was going to have that deducted out of her paycheck!

The potential hit to her bank account was almost enough to make Yuri forget all self-preservation instincts and slap this weirdo upside the cheek for startling her so badly. Almost. As it were, Yuri didn’t really feel like approaching this creep with a 10-foot pole.

“Miss I-I don’t know who you are—“

“I’m Choi Yena! Talent Acquisitions, OTR Entertainment! And YOU need to tell me who YOU are! Where did you learn to sing like that?!”

“I-I...I just sing. I was just messing around.” Yuri responds, overwhelmed and flabbergasted.

Talent Acquisitions? OTR? Was this loudmouth in front of her really a talent scout? Was it standard practice for talent scouts to stick their heads through random windows and harassing the people on the other side? Yuri eyes a nearby frying pan, ready to reach for it to swing at this “Yena” if the latter tried anything funny.

“Sing for me.”

Yuri blinks at Yena’s sudden demand.

“What?”

“Sing for me. Please. Let me hear it again. Your voice. I need to hear it.”

“That’s kinda weird. You don’t just go around asking strangers to sing for you.” Yuri says with a nervous laugh. She wasn’t just a jukebox you could simply plug and play. Her singing was for private moments only, rarely shared with the world. She just...never considered that she was actually good at it.

“Oh my sweet, sweet melodious new friend, I can assure you that it’s literally my job to get strangers to sing for me. Most would do it with lesser coaxing than this to be honest.” Yena winks, and the sheer obnoxiousness has Yuri’s fingers twitching towards the earlier frying pan.

Was this a stalemate? Yena clearly showed no signs of leaving anytime soon, and Yuri really didn’t feel comfortable blindly following the orders of a weirdo out of the blue like this, talent scout be damned. Heck how was she even sure that Yena was legit? What was an OTR anyways?

The sound of the kitchen door opening causes both her and Yena to turn towards it just in time to see Hyewon peeking her head through, a confused expression on her face.

“Yul? Is everything okay—Hey! Get out of our kitchens! Yul who is this?!” The confusion on Hyewon’s face quickly morphs into a stern scowl when her gaze finally settles on the weird girl with her head sticking in through the kitchen windows.

Her saviour!

Yuri starts to back away towards Hyewon, shuffling her feet slowly towards her best friend as if any sudden movement would cause the situation to pop off.

“Unnie, this weirdo is kinda making me feel uncomfortable.” Yuri whispers lowly, afraid that the stranger would overhear but upon hearing the discomfort in the younger girl’s voice Hyewon immediately charged forwards towards the girl in the window.

Hellfire and brimstone burned in the older girl’s eyes. Hyewon, for lack of a better phrase, had lost her .

“Get out of our kitchen you creep! Stay away from her!” Hyewon shouted to Yena, almost as if she were accosting a stray cat that had wandered where it shouldn’t have.

“Is this a friend of yours? Can she sing too? The two of you make a good looking pair!” Either completely oblivious to the aggression being directed towards her or just simply committed to her job, Yena chirps out the questions with an exuberant twinkle in her eyes.

For some reason Hyewon reacted a little strangely to something Yena had said. Yuri watches her friend recoil backwards slightly and there was a tinge of pink dusting her cheeks.

Was Hyewon...was she blushing?

Before Yuri could begin to contemplate it further, Hyewon had grabbed the earlier freshly-washed frying pan from the sink and began threateningly slicing the air with it like an off-season samurai.

“I’M GOING TO CHOP YOU UP AND SERVE YOU AS TOMORROW’S MYSTERY MEAT!” Hyewon yells as she continues committing violence to thin air, face blushing bright red for some reason.

Might Yuri suggest using a knife to chop Yena up instead? It might do the job better than a frying pan. Also, their restaurant didn’t serve mystery meat. Yena herself didn’t seem to take the threat on her life all too seriously because she managed to take a moment to laugh at Hyewon before slowly backing away.

“Okay, I’ll bounce! I’ll bounce!! Just gimme a sec—huh.”

Yena froze, eyes wide in sudden realisation.

“Huh?” Yuri repeated after the girl in the window.

What? What was huh? What did huh mean? Why was there a weird foreboding feeling rising in Yuri’s gut? She and Hyewon stared holes straight into Yena’s soul, as the girl smiled nervously at a random spot on the ground.

“.....” Yena fidgeted in silence, purposely avoiding eyecontact with Yuri and Hyewon.

“Don’t tell me.” Yuri groans as realisation slowly starts sinking in for her as well.

Yena laughs awkwardly. A bead of sweat falls from her forehead as she finally meets Yuri’s judgmental gaze.

No.

She better not say it.

She better not dare—

“My head’s stuck.”

Yuri pinched the bridge of her nose. She feels a headache coming on. No, the headache was already here. This girl, Choi Yena, from OTR Entertainment’s Talent Acquisitions department, was a headache in human form.

“Shall I remove it from your shoulders?” Hyewon suggests, having actually switched out her frying pan for a knife without any one of them realising it. Yuri’s eyes nearly bug out of their sockets as she scrambles towards her friend in a panic.

“Unnie! Don’t get violent!” Yuri pleads, furiously waving her hands as if she could physically dispel the violent thoughts out of her friend’s head.

“If someone’s out to hurt you, you bet I’m getting violent!” Hyewon yells back as Yena looks on with fear at the knife-brandishing waitress.

“Hey! I just wanted to hear her sing! Ain’t nobody hurting anyone!” Yena yells out in a panic as Hyewon draws closer to her.

“That’s still to be determined.”

Hyewon’s loaded threat was enough to send Yena into a minor panic attack, trying but failing to rip her head out from between the window’s metal bars. It was becoming quickly obvious that the girl would sooner pop her head clean off her shoulders before setting herself free.

With Hyewon threateningly brandishing a sharpened kitchen knife, and Yena squawking for help like a duck, Yuri sighs and decides that neither of them would be able to solve this dilemma on their own.

“...I’ll get the boss to call for help.”

Now...explaining the absurd situation to Chaewon was definitely not something she was looking forward to.

*****************

It was an entire ordeal and a half, trying to explain to Chaewon the circumstances that lead to a girl getting her head stuck in the kitchen window, and how absolutely none of it was Yuri’s fault. Predictably her boss was more than a little upset, but being the good employer that she was, Chaewon knew better than to blame her staff for the problems caused by a custo—wait Yena wasn’t even a customer, was she?

A pest. That was what she was. A pest.

The firefighters arrived about half an hour later with a hacksaw to cut through the window’s metal bars, so Yuri and Hyewon had retreated out to the restaurant floor to not get in their way. The restaurant was all but empty at this point, with Chaewon having to temporarily close up the shop so that the good people in uniform could do their job in the kitchen uninterrupted.

Yuri had to repeatedly assure Hyewon that she was fine and that Yena had not tried to hurt her, but she knew her words were doing little to placate the visibly agitated girl next to her. Hyewon was protective of her, and Yuri knew this fact very well.

She remembers a time when Hyewon had gotten into a fistfight with a couple of boys nearly twice her age back when they were both in elementary school just because said boys had been picking on Yuri’s less-than-fashionable choice of hairstyle that day.

(Yuri had never again tried to wear 6 ponytails on her head simultaneously).

What this whole ordeal did do for them though, was give Hyewon and Yuri a brief moment’s reprieve from their hectic work schedule. It wasn’t often they had the chance to just sit down while they were on the clock. It was nice. Pleasant, even. Exhaustion made even the restaurant’s cold, metal seats seem almost welcoming.

“They’re leaving.” Hyewon notes and Yuri looks up to see 3 firefighters exiting the restaurant’s premises via the front door, just as a familiar blonde girl with unkempt hair passes by them on her way into the restaurant.

With her hair sticking out at odd angles, Yena at least had the sense to look sheepish about causing them all the hassle.

“You got your head out of our window.” Yuri says, a statement/observation more than it was a question. Yena scratched her cheek, a blush on her face that made the talent scout appear a lot younger than what Yuri had initially thought she was. Yena couldn’t have been much older than Yuri and Hyewon themselves.

“But I’ve still got my foot in my mouth.” Yena admitted, showing the first signs of guilt on her face. “Sorry about the...uh...excitement. I can get carried away.”

It wasn’t the best apology Yuri has heard in her life, but she decides to let the girl off easy. As overwhelming as it was, at the end of the day Yuri wasn’t all too bothered by it. Besides, the only person that seemed to be individually hurt by the entire incident was Yena herself. Yuri could already see the red welts beginning to form around the girl’s jaw and neck from where the window’s metal bars had spent the last 30 minutes pressing up against the pale skin.

“It’s cool.” Yuri replies simply, but she immediately sees the relief washing over Yena’s face.

“Let’s start over!” Yena chirps, digging through the bag she had slung across her body and producing a single white card from the bag’s seemingly never-ending depths. “Hi! My name is Choi Yena! I’m a talent scout from OTR Entertainment, and basically my job is to go around finding possible talents and asking them to come audition for our agency.”

Yuri eyes the card being offered to her and carefully takes it. A business card. Simple in design, but it did wonders to help legitimise Yena in her mind. She wasn’t just a whackjob that made it a mission to disturb people in kitchens.

“And you think I’m suitable?” Yuri asks incredulously, a single eyebrow raised as the smile on Yena’s face stretches almost impossibly wider.

Yena places both palms onto the table separating her and Yuri, leaning forwards towards the latter with an almost intimidating Chesire grin on her small face.

“I think you’re perfect.”

Yuri leans back against her chair in an attempt to create some manner of space between her and Yena, but it was the sound of Hyewon clearing that managed to clue the talent scout into the fact that she was getting overexcited again.

“I think you’ve got a few screws loose. Who even approaches someone that aggressively?” Hyewon growls, glaring daggers at Yena who brushes off the animosity as if it were dirt on her shoulder.

“Well, I know what I want. And I tend to go for it if it’s right in front of me.”

Hyewon’s eyes narrow into dangerous slits.

“Yuri isn’t an it.”

Things were escalating again, and Yuri knew she had to chime in somehow and interject before she would be tasked with the unenviable job of cleaning up bits of Yena from around the shop once Hyewon was done with her. If Hyewon was merciful enough to even leave bits.

“So you want me to sing?” Yuri asks, loud enough to pull the attention of both girls away from each other.

“Would you?! I mean, you don’t really need to! The audition is what really matters. Asking you to sing now is purely for selfish reasons.” Yena rambles on but anyone could see the excitement practically radiating off her features.

“I mean...I can.” Yuri shrugs. Hyewon just looked at her curiously, as if caught between wanting to stop her and wanting to hear her friend sing as well.

The restaurant was empty asides from them. Chaewon was somewhere in the back doing whatever it is bosses do. Probably assessing the damage to their kitchen window and calculating how much she wanted to charge Yena for the damages. Yuri surprisingly had absolutely no qualms with singing for this stranger, despite being inexperienced.

She just didn’t know what to sing. Should she search through her phone for a backing track to accompany her voice, or should she just wing it and go acapella?

She looks at Hyewon, and it just...comes to her. One of Hyewon’s favourite songs, that Yuri herself only knows by heart just because she would often catch her best friend singing it softly to herself during the moments of silence between them. When one is preoccupied with her homework while the other was scrolling through their phone. No backing track needed, this was a song that Yuri knew needed to be felt more than heard. An acapella version was more than enough, especially with the natural reverb that the empty restaurant would provide her voice.

The lyrics to Taeyeon’s Gravity leave her lips naturally, as if this wasn’t the first time she’s singing them out.

"Feelings I ignored,
Familiar past days,
You didn’t ask anything and stayed by my side.
After long times have passed,
In the end, it was you.
Like this, you and me.

For me, who was in danger, you are gravity.
Days when I wandered, strength that pulled me strongly,
Past the lonely times,
I finally found my place.
Hold me even tighter,
For me, who was in danger, you are gravity."

 

Yuri sings the song as far as she could remember the lyrics, which was almost three-quarter ways through it. It took a lot more out of her than she thought it would. Was this how it was like? Singing her heart out, at maximum volume to a willing audience? 

It was...exhilarating. Exciting. She could hear her heart beating in her ears. She could feel the blood rushing through her veins. She wasn't even sure if she sounded good but...but she definitely felt good.

Jo Yuri felt alive.

“...Wow.” Hyewon says dumbly once she’s managed to find her voice, breaking through the dense silence.

A single word. A single expression, but it spoke volumes. Her best friend was looking at her with awe and adoration.

“A star. I...I’ve stumbled across a star!”

Yuri turns to Yena and the girl was looking at her as if she had just discovered oxygen. There was a twinkle in the talent scout’s eyes that Yuri had not been expecting. A flash of movement later and Yena was on her knees on the floor, hands clasped and beaming up at Yuri.

“There’s NO WAY I’m letting you slip through my fingers! Please! PLEASE attend the auditions this Saturday!”

Yuri didn’t know what to make of a pleading, begging Choi Yena. Nobody has ever begged her for anything before and she can’t say that she was enjoying the attention. It felt awkward to have someone on their knees in front of her like this, so Yuri said the one thing she could say in this situation to placate Yena.

“I’ll...think about it.”

And evidently that was all that was needed to be said. Yena had bounced back onto her feet before Yuri could even blink, and was already dashing off towards the restaurant’s entrance.

“I have to go. I have to bounce. Places to be, didn’t expect to get my head stuck in a window today. I’ll see you this Saturday Yuri!” Yena waves towards her before jabbing a finger in Hyewon’s direction. “Please don’t bring along Ms. Grumpy over there.”

With a flip of her brilliant blonde hair, Yena was gone and out of sight.

Yuri released a breath that she had no idea she was holding, winded and exhausted by Hurricane Yena.

“What a pain in the .” Yuri hears Hyewon grumble in discontent. The older girl leans back into her chair and exhales through her nose.

The white business card in Yuri’s hands feels like a lead weight. She finds her eyes drawn to the thin piece of cardboard and the black lettering printed on it. OTR Entertainment. Choi Yena. Talent Acquisitions.

Talent? Was that what Yuri had? It’s the first time she’s heard of herself possessing such a thing. Was Yena mistaken? No, the look in her eyes as she left the restaurant was not that of someone who lacked certainty. Yena BELIEVED that Yuri was talented. Her. It felt...weird, to be wanted like this.

Flattering.

Exhilarating.

“...You going for it?”

Yuri’s head snaps up to see Hyewon regarding her with that usual vacant expression on her face, the scowl from earlier nothing but a distant memory. There was something in Hyewon’s eyes though, that suggests the older girl knew exactly what was going through Yuri’s mind.

How could she not? Nobody knew her like Hyewon did.

“I don’t know. It seems interesting, but...singing? Never even crossed my mind.” Yuri admits, scratching her cheek and trying to laugh the situation off. As if it the very idea of it was a joke, and that she hadn’t been seriously entertaining the thought of auditioning.

“You’ll do great. The auditions, I mean. It’ll be a no-brainer for you.”

The sheer nonchalance in which that statement was said manages to catch Yuri off guard. She observes Hyewon’s face, bored expression still being worn but now with a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. There was so much confidence in the words being uttered by the older girl. So much faith. Hyewon was looking at Yuri with eyes that held her to such high regard that for a moment Yuri herself forgot her own doubts.

Looking into Hyewon’s eyes, that held such adoration for her, the younger girl couldn’t help the blush colouring her cheeks. That was a first for her. Hyewon has never made her cheeks burn up this way before.

It was...odd.

“You think I should do it?” Yuri asks uncertainly.

She wouldn’t have done it. She wanted to, but she never would have gotten the confidence for it but all it took was positive reinforcement from Hyewon and suddenly the thought of failure slowly vanished from her mind like a dissipating fog. Maybe she should try. Hyewon says she would be great at it, so perhaps she would be.

Hyewon wasn’t one for empty compliments, and Yuri never knew Hyewon to be a liar.

If Hyewon says it is, then it shall be.

The older girl shrugs awkwardly. “...It’s your call, Yuri.”

There was a typical Hyewon response. Neither encouraging, nor holding Yuri back.

Hyewon made it clear. That the choice was Yuri’s to make, but if she were to gain enough courage to make the leap then Yuri would find herself more than capable of making it to the other side.

“Did you like the song choice though?” Yuri asks, trying to change the subject to something lighter. The song sung earlier of course, was chosen with Hyewon in mind.

The older girl absentmindedly twirls a lock of her own jet black hair around a slender finger, looking away from Yuri for the first time since Yena had left the restaurant.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard you sing it.” Hyewon says with a light laugh, eyes focused on a random tile on the floor. “I’m kinda upset that it was sung for someone else though.”

Yuri reaches out for her friend, hand settling atop Hyewon’s on the dinning table and offers her best apologetic smile in recompense.

“Is there anything else you’d like to hear me sing? Just name it. I’ll be your personal jukebox.”

It could have just been her imagination but Yuri swears she feels Hyewon’s hand jerk slightly under hers. Hyewon keeps her gaze away from Yuri, as if intent on hiding her face from view. The younger girl doesn’t question the action, nor does she bring attention to the way Hyewon’s fingers have slowly started to fit themselves between the gaps of Yuri’s own.

They were holding hands. Something that they’ve done a million times before, but this time it felt different.

“I’ll get back to you on that.” Hyewon says, finally looking up so that Yuri could see the pink colouring the older girl’s cheeks. “...When you’re a famous artist under OTR Entertainment. I’ll have you sing for me every single day.”

It felt like a bit of a far fetched request. Unreasonable, even.

...But Yuri was never one to make rational promises.

“Deal.”

She gives Hyewon’s hand a little squeeze, and she laughs when Hyewon squeezes back.

******************

“—and food court’s over there, but it’s only for employees and contractors. You just gotta come back once you’ve passed the auditions.”

Yuri struggles to keep up behind Yena as the blonde girl shows her around OTR Entertainment’s massive building. Truth be told a grand tour was not at all necessary but Yena was gracious enough to offer, and Yuri was curious enough to accept. She doubts any of the other aspiring hopefuls Yuri could see scattered throughout the lobby had the luxury of receiving a tour. Was this preferential treatment? Shouldn’t Yena give everyone else a tour as well?

She’s never really done anything like this before. She’s never auditioned for anything, and a part of her still thinks that the decision to come here was completely bonkers but...here she was anyways, after sitting through an hour’s train ride to get to Seoul from Incheon. Her parents didn’t know she was here, of course. It just seemed like something they should only know after she passes the auditions. No point in making a fuss out of this whole thing if she didn’t pass it.

“Thanks for showing me the ropes, unnie. This place is ginormous!” Yuri says, beyond grateful that she has at least a familiar face in this intimidating building.

Yuri didn’t really know what to expect for her first time visiting a talent agency. In her brilliantly imaginative head, she had dreamt up a colourful building that reflected the creative talents residing within it. The interior of OTR Entertainment’s Seoul Headquarters however...was anything but. Every surface not made of glass was painted with a dull shade of grey. Corporate and cold.

“Just stick by me and you won’t get lost! If you DO get lost though, security office is right over there.” Yena said as she pointed to a door close to the front entrance. They had taken an entire tour around the building and somehow ended up back at the start where Yena had greeted her as soon as she entered the building.

Speaking of the entrance, there seemed to be some sort of commotion going on by the front door based on all the flashing camera shutters and loud yelling. What the heck was that about? All the other employees milling about seemed unfazed, hinting to Yuri that this ruckus might be a common occurrence.

“Well, you’re in for a treat.” Yena says ambiguously, before grabbing Yuri’s wrist and guiding the both of them closer to the entrance. “C’mon. Come! Come!”

It wasn’t as if Yuri had much choice in the matter to be honest. Yena suddenly yanking her by the wrist gave the younger girl no time to even begin resisting, thus she just followed bonelessly behind the talent scout and allowed herself to be manhandled.

Really, why were they heading towards the rush of people? That seemed counterintuitive. Yuri’s social anxiety usually lead her to moving away from crowds and mobs. She was about to voice her complaints to Yena, when the sea of people in front of her parted and then...

...Magic.

Or something akin to it.

There was a girl that walked through the crowd, parting the mass of people so effortlessly it was as if she had a force field surrounding her that repelled anybody unworthy enough to be in her presence. Yuri’s entire body freezes as she just...takes in this ethereal being walking in her direction.

This girl had hair so dark that Yuri wasn’t quite sure if it was black or brown, that ended just past her shoulders. She had a pair of oversized sunglasses covering her eyes, a pair of Apple’s latest Airpods in her ears, and a loose black t-shirt that was just short enough to reveal a hint of pale skin between where the shirt’s hem and her navy denim jeans met.

“Yooo Kkura-unnie! How you doin’?” Yena excitedly quacks, waving an arm around almost violently to catch this “Kkura-unnie’s” attention. The dark-haired vision could be heard clicking her tongue before coming to a stop right in front of the two of them.

“Yena please. You’re being too loud again.” The girl says, but with an obviously feigned annoyance. Yuri takes a moment to note how the girl was taller than both her and Yena, and how deep the timbre of her voice was. “Who’s the starry-eyed hopeful next to you?”

It takes a second, but Yuri belatedly realises that she was the starry-eyed hopeful the girl was referring to.

Yuri also just only realised that she had been staring at this beauty before her with her jaw gaped open like some kind of neanderthal the entire time.

She feels Yena snake an arm around her shoulder but she doesn’t even acknowledge it. She just didn’t want to take her eyes off of this stranger. Every moment not spent gawking like an idiot at the girl seemed like a moment wasted. Yuri’s brain seems to have short-circuited due to standing in such close proximity to someone so beautiful. Was that smoke she smelled?

“Exactly that! A starry-eyed hopeful. She’s got an audition in about half an hour, and I think she’ll have no problem at all!” Yena chirps, slamming an open palm not-so-gently onto Yuri’s back to signal that it was time she acted like a normal human being and stopped freaking out.

“H-Hi. My name’s Yuri. Jo Yuri. Hello.” Yuri says. Good. She didn’t throw up, at least.

“Hello.” The girl removes her sunglasses, and Yuri finds herself getting lost in those hazel eyes staring straight into her own. “I’m Sakura.”

Sakura. Of course Yuri knew Sakura. Everybody in the entire country knew Miyawaki Sakura. Genius actress and the face of numerous cosmetic advertisements. It just didn’t click with Yuri until Sakura had taken off those oversized sunglasses. Sakura. A beautiful name, for a beautiful—no. That would really be too cliché of a statement to make. Sakura was hands down the most beautiful person Yuri has ever met in her life. Just sharing the same oxygen as the girl felt like a privilege.

Sakura leans in closer, and the close proximity was too much for Yuri. She unintentionally makes a gurgling sound that was quite inappropriate for a human and Yuri was sure her face was as red as a stop sign. God, Sakura smells great. The best smell Yuri had ever smelled. Was that weird? Was that a weird thing to say? Why was Sakura just staring at her like that?

“You’re really cute. You get my vote, if that means anything.” Sakura chuckles, giving Yuri a wink before putting her sunglasses back on. “See ya around Yena. Take care of her.”

Sakura starts to walk away, and not a moment too soon because as soon as the appropriate amount of distance had been created between her and Sakura, Yuri’s legs just buckle and forget how to be legs, causing her to fall -first onto OTR’s hard marble flooring.

As if already expecting such a reaction, Yena was quick to hook an arm under Yuri’s armpit to help the girl get back on her feet. It must be an everyday occurrence for the OTR staff, seeing Sakura drop people like flies just from sheer beauty.

Heck Yuri couldn’t even feel ashamed or embarrassed. Shaky legs just felt like such a logical outcome to being that close to someone that pretty.

“She’s something else eh? And she seems to like you! She’s the highest paid actress in our company, you can bet having her vote would help in the auditions.” Yena chirped, patting Yuri on the back while simultaneously dusting off invisible lint from the younger girl’s clothes.

If Yena was amused by Yuri’s literal swooning, the older girl did not make it apparent. Turns out that to her credit, Choi Yena could be tactful after all.

“I had no idea Miyawaki Sakura was from this company.” Yuri says after she’s managed to gather herself together. Not that knowing that tidbit would have affected her choice to audition today. She didn’t even watch any of the dramas Sakura has acted in. The actress didn’t really have that big of a hold on her life.

....until today, that is.

Now Yuri was almost ashamed to admit that she might just join a Miyawaki Sakura fanclub when she got back home.

“...You didn’t do any research on us AT ALL did you?” Yena accused, jabbing the center of Yuri’s chest with an accusatory finger while the younger girl could only laugh weakly with guilt.

“Nope. No research at all.”

...Maybe she should also drop by Myeongdong to see if she could pick up a DVD box set of Sakura’s latest drama series. There was a tiny chance that she’s become slightly infatuated with the gorgeous actress.






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Hello! Hans here!

So like I said before, the real story and plot starts now in this chapter. Yuri's journey into being a musician. I guess...it's kind of my small attempt at keeping Idol Yuri alive and well. I come from a music background, with a music degree so I've always enjoyed writing about the business side of music. I love writing about an idol's journey, and this is just another attempt on my end to bring that journey to life.

This chapter introduces Yena and Sakura, and you will notice that I aged Sakura up by a bit. Just because I wanted to have that dynamic where Yuri has someone a lot older with more experience to look up to. Yena in this fic is the same age as Hyewon, but she doesn't go to school. Let's just say that she dropped out to work with OTR Entertainment here hahahaha I wanted to make her 18, but that would make her older than Hyewon and did will change the entire dynamic.

It may seem a little out of the blue, eh? In the previous chapter Yuri had just gotten a job, where as now she's auditioning to be a singer. It went from zero to 100 real quick, but I had wanted to plant the seeds of curiosity in Yuri. I wanted to make her curious, and I wanted to make her hungry to be better in life. It plays in a little better as the fic goes on, so yeah! Humour me with it hahaha

Thank you again to everyone for reading this and leaving a comment. It means the world to me! It really does!

I will see you in the next chapter!

-Hans.