2034, somewhere over the pacific

panic.

it’s not a feeling irene was particularly familiar with but it’s one she’s been gotten acquainted to for the last 18 hours. she’s currently half-way through a 13-hour flight to a city she once called home, to meet a person who once was her home. between her unfinished vodka and the jessie ware playlist she was listening to, irene couldn’t help but second guess her decision to fly to toronto. she looks to her side and sees sooyoung looking bored on her phone. she must’ve stared at the younger girl a little too long as sooyoung lets out a small chuckle and leans in to face irene.

“don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now,unnie”, sooyoung teases

“i haven’t seen her or her family in 10 years, sooyoung. why on earth would i NOT be worried”

“that just means you’ve had 10 years to get over your cold feet”

“that assumes i had plans of going to see her”

“so you were just going to let life go by without ever trying to reach out to her again, unnie?”

irene holds back her tongue. going after seungwan in canada was just one of the many promises juhyun’s broken over the years. after ten years of missed phone calls, unanswered texts, and empty promises, she isn’t quite sure if she’d still be welcome.

sooyoung gently nudges irene, breaking the other girl’s inner panic.

“she’ll be glad to see you, unnie. i promise”

“how can you even be sure, sooyoung?”

“she still asks about you, you know? she never stopped. she thought she was being subtle about it but she subtlety was never her strong suite”

irene nods intently at the revelation. seungwan still thought about her then.

“seriously, unnie. you have nothing to worry about. just be honest to her. after everything you’ve been through, after everything that’s been going on. you both deserve that, don’t you think?”

sooyoung puts up the divider between their seats and leaves irene alone with her thoughts.

2013, somewhere in seoul

“juhyun-unnie, did you hear about the new trainee from canada?”

juhyun looks up at seulgi excitedly looking over to where she was, holding out her phone.

“her name’s seungwan! they sent a video of her singing in the group, did you see? she’s so good, unnie!”, seulgi says

juhyun takes seulgi’s phone and hits play on the video.

‘she’s pretty’, juhyun thinks quietly to herself. juhyun’s thoughts are interrupted by the new girl’s singing and juhyun finds herself enamored by her voice.

“she’s really good right, unnie? i heard she’ll be joining our classes! i can’t wait to meet her. her english is so good too, unnie! i’m gonna get her to teach me some words. i think we’ll be good friends, unnie. maybe she can join our little group.”, seulgi says

juhyun chuckles at her friend’s excitement. of course seulgi would be excited to be friends with the new trainee. in all the years juhyun’s known seulgi, the girl seems to have made it her mission to befriend every person that comes in through the agency. it didn’t matter how short or long they stayed in the company, you could bet on kang seulgi to befriend them.

“are you trying to replace me, seulgi-yah?”, juhyun warns playfully

“maybe? i bet seungwan will let me eat all the snacks i want” seulgi teases back

“yah! i’m just making sure the trainers don’t scold you for sneaking in snacks “

“you’re just jeaous i didn’t bring the pringles flavor you wanted, unnie”

“maybe i’ll befriend seungwan myself! i bet she’ll bring the flavor of snacks i like to training”

“YAH UNNIE DON’T STEAL MY FRIEND” seulgi whines

juhyun lets out a laugh and shakes her head at seulgi’s antics.

“come on, let’s practice the routine before ssaem catches us goofing up”

2034, toronto

irene and sooyoung make it out of pearson but not without a few bouts of panic from juhyun, leaving sooyoung exasperated and eager to reach their destination.

“seriously, unnie. you’re still a celebrity. please consider your image and not have an emotional breakdown in the airport”

“sooyoung, i have bigger problems to worry about. we are literally a 2 hour car ride away from seungwan’s house. seungwan! seungwan who i haven’t spoken or seen in 10 years. seungwan whom i’ve hurt in ways i can’t even count. this was a mistake” irene rambled, “seunghee will kill me. i might not even catch a glimpse of seungwan. seunghee will probably have my head before i see her sister”

“i did consider it, actually. but for reasons i can’t understand, seungwan is still quite fond of that dumb head of yours so i was banned from harming it”

irene breaks out of her stupor and finds herself face to face with a familiar face.

“seunghee?”, irene croaks out<