꧁𓊈𒆜 03 𒆜𓊉꧂

THE SAME

★⡀.•☆•.★

After their supposed ‘fight’ the two seemed to have grew even more distant. So distant, that it started getting obvious to some of the members as well.

Nako is particularly perceptive ever since their last talk about Chaeyeon’s apparent “intenseness’. She approaches Sakura when she had noticed the girl looking at Chaeyeon, Eunbi and Hyewon huddled in the corner of the practice room.

“What’s going on with you two?”

Sakura is startled at Nako’s sudden appearance but does not move, “Nothing.”

Nako raises an eyebrow at the older’s reply, “I got eyes you know?”

Sakura sighs, there really is no point in hiding it from Nako seeing as the girl already knows, “Chaeyeon…... she’s acting weird.” she reveals with a heavy sigh.

There’s that word again. Nako does not get why Sakura is so fixated on that word. She does not get why Sakura seem to find everything involving Chaeyeon weird. She opens to ask the girl to elaborate but,

Sakura continues instead, “I mean, she does not even wake me up in the mornings anymore. Plus, she doesn’t text me a lot too. It’s like she’s a totally different person.”

Nako listens to Sakura’s tirade but is promptly confused as the girl continued to list the changes she’s noticed, “Wait… isn’t that what you wanted? You wanted her to cut those down right?”

Sakura chooses not to answer and only continued to sigh as she rests her head on her arms. She did want the space, but not like this. This one…...hurts.

Honestly, she does not know what she wants anymore.

Nako watches her, waiting for Sakura to say something more. To finally explain what the hell is going on, but the girl says something else instead,

“Hey, can you like ask her how she’s doing? I’m worried…she looks so down…” she says not taking her eyes off Chaeyeon.

Nako absentmindedly takes a glance at Chaeyeon at the corner of her eye. She did notice her Chaeyeon unnie being down the last couple of days. And she had asked her once about it, but her unnie merely answered with a: “Yes, I ‘am. Don’t worry.”

“I already did. And she said she was fine.”

Sakura shakes her head, “I know she’s not….” She continues to watch as Chaeyeon talks to Hyewon, before moving to rest her head on the girl’s shoulder. Sakura drops her head down again, sighing. “Clearly she’s not.”

Nako knits her eyebrow at that. If Sakura is so worried, shouldn't she ask the girl directly, instead of going through her? “Then why don’t you ask her yourself? You guys are best friends, right? And adding that you two are roommates, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

What Nako is saying is valid. She's probably the closest to the girl in the group, however when she recalls their last conversation and how it ended, her face immediately scrunches at the memory. It was a first for them, and it leaves a very bitter taste on .

“She’s not even at the dorm most of the time these days…” she adds, knowing that was a lame excuse seeing Nako’s expression, the girl knows that it's complete bull crap and merely stares down at her, waiting for the actual truth to come out.

Sakura sighs deep, before she finally coughs it out, “We sort of had an unpleasant conversation….”

“You guys fought?”, Nako asks directly, appearing more curious than surprised. The younger one already felt like it would''ve happened sooner or later. She knows that these two tend to hide what they are feeling to themselves; avoiding confrontations as much as possible. And this avoidance trait of theirs is bound to clash together and blow up.

“I don’t know if you call that fighting but I guess that’s what it was…” she answers thinking back.

“That’s new.” Nako merely comments, not wanting to say that she had expected it.

Sakura shrugs not knowing what to reply to that.

“Well, what did you guys fight about?”, asks Nako. She at leasts wants to try and make sense of what's happening between the two best friends.

Sakura shakes her head, “It was something stupid…"

Nako knew immediately that Sakura will not elaborate from that vague answer. She thinks that even Sakura herself does not understand what is happening bewteen them, so she decides to go for another approach. “So, what are you going to do then?” She asks instead.

“I don’t know.”

It was Nako’s turn to frown, “Okay. So you'll just won't do anything? Will you let this, whatever 'this' is fester and grow?"

Sakura stays mum.

"Want my suggestion then?"

Sakura looks up at her with hope. That it makes Nako wished she could give her a better idea but to be honest it was probably the best one she could ever give regarding the situation.

“Just talk to her.” She deadpans.

Sakura sighs. She knew the girl is right, it's ultimately the only thing she could do before anything else. Nako places a hand on her shoulder, squuezing it in an apologetic way.

“Just try and talk it out please. It’s really unsettling that you two seemed to be like this."

★⡀.•☆•.★

A few days after, Sakura was just coming from the other dorm and was on her way to her room. As she gets in, she was shocked to see Chaeyeon there. The past few weeks had been so strange. With Sakura barely seeing the girl much less being in the same space...... and now she's right there.

Seeing Chaeyeon lazing around in their room is a nostalgic sight, proving that Chaeyeon hadn't been around as much. Sakura could literally reach out and touch her, which she almost did, before settling to voice out her thoughts instead.

“You’re here.”

Chaeyeon looks up from her phone and nods. If she was surprised at Sakura’s sudden remark she does not say. “Oh Hey. Welcome back.” She answers as she went back to browsing on her phone.

Sakura tenses at the formal speech as she continues to stare at her, still trying to get used to seeing Chaeyeon in their room after what seems like forever, “You don’t have to go anywhere?”

“Nope. Just gonna hang out here.” Replies Chaeyeon, not bothering to look back.

“Are you not going home?”

Chaeyeon shakes her head, “Nope.”

“Not going to meet with Hyewon or something?”

This time Chaeyeon finally looks back at her, clearly confused that Sakura is asking a lot of questions, “Aren’t you guys going to play?” she answers back with her own.

Sakura seemed surprised, taking time to register what the girl had said. At this, Chaeyeon continues, “Well that’s what Hye told me earlier.”

So, they were really planning to hang out if only she hadn’t asked Hyewon first. The two would most likely be hanging out right now and it will be her who'll be lazing around their room.

“Ah yeah, just came to get something.” she manages to answer.

Chaeyeon nods but does not say anything else, leaving the room in silence. The tension grows as the two best friends stare down at each other waiting for someone to make the first move. Waiting for someone to finally break this limbo they are in and go back to what they were before. Sakura is about to talk but Chaeyeon eventually breaks it first as she repositions herself on her bed, facing away.

“Have fun.”

Sakura knew she was too late. Deeming the conversation done, she quietly walks towards her bed, reaching under her pillow for her switch. She locates it but found herself staring at Chaeyeon’s back. Instead of turning to leave she decides to sit on her bed and stare at her best friend. As if to commit this scene to memory.

She is not used to this awkwardness or not being able to talk to Chaeyeon without feeling like her heart is beating out of her chest. Sakura does not know what’s going on between them or why Chaeyeon feels so far away even though she's so close. She could literally see the wall the girl’s seemed to have slowly built between them.

She sat there, thinking where did everything go wrong. Her phone vibrates in her hand and snaps her back, she looks down and saw it was Yena. She forgot that she was just gonna grab her switch, and that they were going to play with Hyewon. She lets it ring, mind still a bit distracted.

She watches as Chaeyeon shifts back to her previous position eyeing her and subsequently interrupting her musings, “Aren’t you going to answer that?”

Sakura blinks, as she waves a hand, “Uh no. it’s nothing.”

“Hmmm. I think that’s Hyewon calling.” Chaeyeon gestures with her chin, “You s