“Are you free this weekend?”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“What?!”

 

“Yah! I’m drinking over here Kim Minju!”

 

Minju covered with her hand, she didn’t realize that she said her thoughts out loud, to someone she doesn’t know too.

 

“Ah- uhhmm.... I-I meant a-are you g-going to compete again n-next year?” Minju did all she could to divert the situation away from what happened a minute before. “To defend your championship.”

 

“Oh, well, we’ll see about that, I really had no plan to join in on any of this in the first place, I just went to the dentist and next thing I know I was a participant for the Golden Voice.” Yuri answered Minju’s question, still keeping in mind the question from earlier.

 

“I’m very thankful for your dentist when I saw your panicking face last month when you joined.” Yena pointed her finger at Yuri while laughing.

 

“I’m not eating that much hard food and candy anymore, that freaking operation hurt so much I wailed like a cow trapped in a well.” Yuri told her.

 

“Why a cow trapped in a well?” Nako raised her eyebrow in response to Yuri’s remark.

 

“I couldn’t think of anything right that moment.”

 

Right after that Minju continued asking some few questions to Yuri and one question popped into her mind that she wanted to ask among the usual things.

 

“What was the title of the song?” Minju asked her, curiosity getting into her.

 

“Umm… it’s named ‘The Story of Us’, it’s just a song I made with Eunbi and Yena-unnie making the sound a year ago.” Yuri answered, remembering the other time she was on a high after the dentist.

 

“Who do you target the most on this song? Seems like you were saying something while singing it earlier.” 

 

“Ummmm…. Not really? I was not targeting an audience, I mean, it can be used for lovers going through something or having the best time or with friends reminiscing about the times they went through, good or bad, I feel this song can be listened to and related to everyone.” Yuri gave her answer.

 

Looking back at it, what happened last year she didn’t really know why she wrote the song but, after listening to what she and her friends made she just felt amazed and proud of herself, who would’ve thought that someone that was high from anestesia was going to make a song out of the blue and win on her first try on a singing contest using said song, against one of the best singers her school has ever had no less.

 

“That’s the wisest thing I ever heard you say in the last month.” Nako said on the side, reminding Minju and Yuri that they were still backstage.

 

“I said alot of wise things, you just werent there to hear ‘em.” Yuri retorted, kinda looking down on Nako, telling her ‘I’m taller than you, shut up.’

 

“Minju, can you umm, stop the staring?” Hyewon spoke unto Minju’s earpiece.

 

Minju again got startled by her earpiece and saw Hyewon walking towards them when she looked back.

 

“Hyewon-ah, what are you doing here?” Yena wondered why her classmate was backstage when she knew that they had a meeting about the play happening in two days.

 

“I was going to join Minju for an interview with Yuri, but I suppose you’re done already, Minju?” Hyewon glanced at Minju, raising one eyebrow in the act.

 

“We’re just wrapping up unnie, I’ll head out after this with Hitomi.” Minju answered.

 

“Oh okay, good luck then, I’ll just interview the others here.” Hyewon then headed to the other participants(not really).

 

“Interviewing others doesn't mean ‘I’ll interview Kwon Eunbi about marriage’ Kang Hyewon!” Yena shouted to Hyewon, also making sure that Eunbi heard what she said.

 

“I’ll be heading out now bye-”

 

Minju wrapped up her interview with Yuri two minutes after that before putting her phone in her camera bag until someone tugged at her sleeves, preventing her from leaving.

 

“Uhmm… I wanna answer your question.” Yuri spoke up, still holding Minju’s sleeve.

 

“W-what que-question? I-i finished i-it already.” Minju was confused on what question she forgot to ask, since she hasn’t done this for over a year now, she may have forgotten something.

 

“You asked me if I’m free this weekend right?” Yuri’s eyes beamed with light.

 

To hell with Minju’s thoughts and , she forgot that even happened and was now mentally slapping herself and wanting the world to swallow her whole.

 

If she didn’t turn into a strawberry carrying a camera bag earlier, then she definitely is now.

 

“I-i’m free this saturday, I was wondering if maybe y-you wanna hangout with me?” Yuri hesitated but still managed to invite Minju to a hangout.

 

Minju was staring into Yuri’s eyes, being lost in it, it was dragging her in and had no plans to open the lock of the cell she was put in, that is until Yuri’s voice opened the lock, making her escape out of said cell.

 

“I-it’s okay if y-you don’t want to, I mean, we all got stuff to do so I u-understand.” Yuri said, her nervousness kindof showing.

 

‘Did she just ask me out? ! SHE ASKED ME OUT!’ 

 

Minju’s mind was still in shambles, although she’s doing her best to come up with a comprehensible answer, not wanting to blurt out her thoughts again.

 

“Uhh-uhhmm… yeahiwouldlovetohangoutwithyoucanwepleasedoitnow?” Well- she certainly did not expect to speak that fast.

 

“What did you say? I did not get it, you spoke too fast.” Yuri chuckled on Minju’s silliness.

 

“I-i mean, yeah, I’d love to hangout with you, c-can I get your number s-so we can t-talk about where we’d hangout?” Minju took out her phone offering it to Yuri, expecting something.

 

Yuri took the phone and punched in her number, ringing it right after to make sure that she did put the right number.

 

“Here’s my number Minju, well then… I guess I’ll talk to you or see you this weekend maybe?” Yuri made eye contact with Minju, handing back the latter’s phone.

 

“Yeah, I’ll talk to you later, bye.” Minju waved and skipped her way back to the auditorium, cheerfully.

 

“Whoa, why are you smiling so widely?” 

 

Yuri didn’t realize she was smiling while looking at Minju who was skipping cheerfully out of the backstage until Yena waved her hands infront of her.

 

“Can’t a singing contest winner smile sometimes?” Yuri giggled.

 

“Good point, congratulations again Yuri, you were fantastic.” Yena and Nako congratulated their friend again before going out of the booth with Yuri.

 

--------

 

“I can’t do this.” Minju was in a panic while hanging out with Hitomi.

 

“What’s happening with you? You’ve been a mess for almost two hours now.” Hitomi said, stopping what she was doing to check up on her friend.

 

“Where do I even start to tell you?” Minju leaned back at the seat and pulled her head back, letting her hair flow down showing how long her hair is while whinning.

 

“Sit properly first comeon, then you tell me where you wanna start.” Hitomi leaned over the table a little and pulled Minju up so the girl could sit upright.

 

Hitomi’s phone rang, showing Nako in the caller id.

 

“Hello? Nako?”

 

“Hey, what’s up?” Hitomi put her phone on speaker.

 

“Where are you guys? I’m with Wonyoung and Yujin right now.”

 

“We’re on the third floor right now at the cafe.”

 

“Okay we’ll meet you guys there.” Nako hung up her phone.

 

After waiting for about five minutes, Minju and Hitomi got a glimpse of the other three.

 

“Sorry we’re late, I had to accompany Yena-unnie and Chaeyeon-unnie to Noraebang with Yuri.” Minju choked on her drink when she heard Yuri’s name was mentioned by Nako, seemingly being bothered by what happened earlier at school.

 

“Unnie, calm down on the drinking, here, have some water.” Wonyoung gave Minju the water she saw beside the older girl and sat down with Yujin following suit.

 

“Unnie, are you okay?” Yujin looked up to Minju after getting her phone to take a picture of the place and sometimes Wonyoung.

 

“Y-yeah, yeah, I’m o-okay, maybe I just d-drank too fast.” Hell no she wasn’t, she was perfectly drinking at her own pace, taking in the taste of her caramel macchiato until Nako said a name that brought let’s just say things back to her mind that she would rather have buried 10000 feet underground.

 

The three that just arrived then went on to order their drinks and Yujin had a belgian waffle and cheesecake that Hitomi asked her to get, taking it along with her latte.

 

--------

 

Panning around to the 4th floor of the mall is Yuri with Yena and Chaeyeon, they agreed with Eunbi to meet up here to celebrate Yuri’s win, all three of them agreed to have Eunbi pay about 80% of the amount.

 

“5, 6, 7, 8 and boom.” Even in the mall, Chaeyeon still subtly moves her body to the music that’s playing, swaying here and there and doing small gestures to not get too much attention on her.

 

She was also on the call with Sakura, in her earphones while the other two were looking around the mall while making their way to the noraebang.

 

“Unnie, Eunbi-unnie said she’s there already and is just waiting for us.” Yuri told the other two who were busy doing their own things.

 

“Make her wait more.” Yena said.

 

“Call you later babe. Bye.” Chaeyeon ended her call with Sakura and glanced back, “How are we gonna make her pay for practically everything if she’s pissed at us?”

 

Yena’s eyes had a glint of mischief in them, telling the other two that this will either turn out great or Eunbi will be more angry and they’ll be the one that will pay the majority of whatever they get on their adventure in this mall.

 

“That’s why Yuri will call Wonyoung and Nako on the phone later on, they will be the one making Eunbi pay for everything.”

 

“And if it doesn’t work?”

 

“The sun is going to rise in the west and set in the east, waters will dry up and the world will end first before Eunbi says no to Nako and Wonyoung.” Yena answered Chaeyeon’s question.

 

“Let’s get going then.”

 

They get close to the noraebang when Yena tells Yuri to call Nako and explain their plan to the shorter girl briefly.

 

“Nako, can you put your phone on speaker?”

 

“Why?’

 

“We need Wonyoung… and maybe Hitomi too.”

 

Nako then put her phone on speaker while Yujin was telling the others what happened to her yesterday.

 

“So that’s how I ended up running late and made to stay outside the room yesterday by Mr. Lee.” Yujin finished her story(that’ll be told another day).

 

“Wonyoung.” Yuri spoke into the phone, getting the attention of the younger girl.

 

*CLANG*

 

Almost everyone in the cafe raised their heads or stopped what they were doing upon hearing something drop, some thinking it was just the utensils dropping, some thought a server dropped a tray of plates, shattering instantly, while the table where that something dropped, they were all stopped from what they were doing, Wonyoung let out a tiny scream.

 

“Yah! Unnie! Stop dropping things!” Wonyoung whined.

 

“Hey, Nako, what happened?” Yuri said into the phone.

 

“I will drop you off your chair now Kim Minju.” Hitomi told her friend.

 

“Sorry everyone!” Minju bowed apologetically to the people in the cafe and her friends.

 

Minju dropped her phone upon hearing Yuri’s voice on the phone. The thing is, she only heard her voice today, so she shouldn’t have known that it was Yuri on the phone. Heck, she shouldn’t have even dropped her phone in the first place.

 

‘What’s going on with me?’ Minju thought to herself.

 

“So, how are you going to make Eunbi-unnie pay for everything?” Wonyoung asked on the phone after calming down from the sound of Minju’s phone dropping on the plate.

 

“So here goes, Yuri will call Nako just a wee bit before we meet up with Eunbi and tell her we waited for you two to finish your class and Chaeyeon drove us here and we accompanied you guys in the mall until you guys arrived to wherever you are right now I don’t know.” For a minute Yena seemed to have a plausible plan, ‘Bloody hell that was a mouthful I’m not doing that again.’

 

“What’s in it for us?” Yena did not think this far, forgetting Nako will not instantly say yes to something like this.

 

“I’ll give you chocolate every weekend until I give back how many I took when I was high.” Yuri offered, knowing it was a little bit of a longshot that she can come through with this but hey, she just won a contest, this should be the least of her worries for the week.

 

‘Ohh, that’s how all my chocolate disappeared.’ Minju pouted since she stores some of her chocolate in Nako and Hitomi’s dorm because theirs gets filled up with not only hers and Wonyoung but Yujin as well, since the puppy practically lives in their dorm now and puts her clothes in their closet and food in their fridge so it’s filled up everytime and knowing how it vanished slightly upset her.

 

“Hmmmm… that’s not really a good offer, not a bad one either though.” Something popped up in Nako and Hitomi’s mind, like they shared one brain, wanting to make the most out of this, Hitomi added something to the table.

 

“If this doesn’t work?”

 

‘Oh yeah, we did not think of that.’ Yena facepalmed.

 

“Will you take care of our laundry as well?”

 

‘’

 

“Uhmm uhh….... Na-nako-chan, Hii-chan, s-surely you guys d-don’t want yo-your best friend t-that just won t-the Golden Voice t-to do l-laundry w-wou-would you?” Yuri chuckled nervously, laundry means taking care of her own and her little friends and god help her if Wonyoung includes hers and Yujin’s laundry too.

 

Surely enough embarrassment and the training she went through should warrant at least some empathy from her friend, right?

 

“Then we won’t help you guys.” ‘.’

 

“Ok, we’re in unnie.” Wonyoung said and ended the call.

 

Yuri’s knees buckled and she nearly fainted and fell face first on the floor if it weren’t for Chaeyeon catching her.

 

“Un-unnie, I-I’m about to ha-have a hea-heart att-ack.” Yuri was breathing heavily right now, not only was her wallet about to disintegrate for the rest of the year and sometime in the summer, she would also be the one that would segregate everything in her friend’s laundry.

 

“Get up, get up Yuri, your plan may not work and Nako and Hitomi may amp up what they gave you.” Chaeyeon told her younger friend.

 

--------

 

“So… Do we go with it or not or maybe?” Nako eyed Hitomi and Wonyoung.

 

Hitomi took a sip of her drink, “I was just dragged into this, I don’t mind not telling everything.”

 

“I’ll play along with you guys, besides, I got alot of laundry already because of this big puppy right here.” Wonyoung ruffled Yujin’s hair then patted it shortly after, which the slightly smaller girl liked to the brim and snuggled into Wonyoung, rubbing her head on the younger’s shoulder.

 

Silently sipping on her drink and munching on her food by the other end of the table, Minju is surfing on her phone, trying to find something to decorate her and Wonyoung’s room with, maybe buy 2 mini fridges for them to put her yogurt and whatever her younger roommate will put in hers.

 

“Nyoung, what do you wanna buy for our room? My treat.”

 

“How much?”

 

“150k.”

 

“Get me the fridge we found unnie.”

 

Shortly after that, Nako sipped on her drink, noticing Minju was seeming peculiar, decided to ask.

 

“What’s on your mind frog?”

 

Minju stopped punching in her and Wonyoung’s order and looked at her friend, “What? What do you mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about?” She was confused as to why her friend suddenly asked her something.

 

“Minju, is something up?” Hitomi asked her friend.

 

“Why the questions so suddenly?”

 

“You always certainly dropped everything you laid your hands on at least once but never your phone.” Nako pointed out.

 

“Just a force of habit...…???”

 

“You don’t sound too sure there buddy.”

 

Three minutes of asking Minju and Minju digging down to the pits of her brain until Nako remembered a blunder of Minju’s earlier back at the school.

 

“Is it because of the weekend or something?”

 

The others looked at Minju in confusion, and intrigue, wanting to know whatever the hell the weekend was, certainly not the singer, maybe?

 

“What’s going on this weekend?” Yujin asked.

 

“The day of the play, why be scared of that unnie? You’ve covered a play before right? This should be a walk in the park.” Wonyoung let out.

 

Minju huffed out a breath before letting out, “Yeah but that’s not the reason.”

 

“Then what is the reason?” Nako said with a little glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

 

“I-I uhmm, may or may not have asked Yuri out this weekend……”