“MINJOO?”

The secretary felt her skin crawl after hearing that voice. She was already washing her hands in the restroom when Kim Chaewon suddenly entered. At first she didn’t even believe what she was seeing until Chaewon called her again.

“What are you doing here, Minjoo?” Chaewon asked, looking surprised but not like Minjoo. The secretary was clearly horrified.

Minjoo hurriedly pulled a paper towel to dry her hands and rushed outside but Chaewon held her by the arm.

“Minjoo, please—“

“Let go!” Minjoo shoves her hand away. “Please, don’t make it hard for us and stop talking to me. Pretend that we didn’t even know each other!”

“But you know I can’t do that—“

“Unnie, please!” Minjoo took a deep breath. “I didn’t come here for you. I am here for Yujin and the band if that’s what you want to know.”

Minjoo immediately walked away from the restroom but Chaewon wasn’t done with her. “Minjoo, aren’t you getting tired? Be true to yourself, you enjoyed my company because you were already tired of Yujin. You’ve grown tired of her!”

The secretary stopped in her tracks and turned to Chaewon while gnashing her teeth. She was so close to crying.

“Five years of seeing the same person wore you out. Five years of dealing with Yujin’s immaturity tired you out. Are you still going to add more years to—“

“Please stop!” Minjoo wanted to shout but she couldn’t properly raise her voice fearing that she would attract unnecessary attention. “I only hung out with you thinking that you are a close friend. You know I don’t have any feelings for you and I don’t remember anything that happened that night! You literally—“

“But no one will believe you.”

Minjoo’s eyes widened in shock. Chaewon’s attitude changed since the last time she appeared in front of her. There was remorse and regret on her face back then but none of it was found on the Chaewon in front of her now.

“Do you actually think Yujin would believe you?” Chaewon scoffed. “After seeing you with me in bed? With her own eyes?”

The secretary felt her knees weakened. She suddenly felt like crying. Chaewon started walking towards but she couldn’t even move her legs to run.

“Minjoo, even if you don’t remember. The fact that you willingly brought me to your house and even had drinks with me despite knowing how bad you are with alcohol says a lot.” 

“G-Get away…” Minjoo then felt the wall behind her.

“Do you know what that means, Minjoo?” Chaewon sneered. “You do enjoy my company and that night you really wanted to forget about Yujin and just have fun with me—“

“Stop!” Minjoo covered her ears. “It wasn’t like that! You know well that it wasn’t like that! I asked you if you can come to my home because I needed help in preparing a surprise for Yujin but you… you…”

Minjoo gritted her teeth. She believes what she had that night was just a regular soda but it wasn’t what she saw the moment she woke up. It was Yujin’s dejected face and bottles of liquor lying around.

“No one will believe you, Minjoo.” A triumphant smile curved up off Chaewon’s lips. “Yujin will never forgive you completely.”

“Stop!” 

Chaewon just smirked. “Contact me when you finally realise what you truly feel. You know where to find me.”

The vocalist was about to go when she noticed another girl standing by the entrance of the restroom. Chaewon just shook her head and walked past the said girl. 

“Yujin doesn’t deserve you.” Chaewon kept repeating that line to herself. She took a look at her phone, her eyes on the chatroom she has with Yujin. It’s full of pictures that Yujin sent to her. “Yujin doesn’t deserve you!”

After ensuring that Chaewon is gone, the girl immediately went to Minjoo’s aid.

“Minjoo-ssi, are you okay?” Jimin asked. “That woman is clearly harassing you! Did you tell Yujin about her?”

The secretary looked at Jimin with embarrassment on her face but the latter assured her that it was okay. Just by looking how Jimin reacted, Minjoo knew that Yujin somehow told her about them.

Minjoo shook her head as she tried to calm herself down. “Yujin gets angry whenever I try to talk about Chaewon-unnie. She would either ignore me or just leave whenever I try to explain things.”

“What the…” Jimin’s frown deepened. “Good thing I was the one who saw you. What if Yujin saw that? It’s going to be a huge problem!”

“I don’t know anymore…” Minjoo held her head, still trying her best not to cry. “I don’t know what to do…”

“It’s gonna be fine.” Jimin helped Minjoo walk out of the restroom back to their waiting room. “For the meantime, let’s not tell Yujin about this. She’s already too fired up to crush that woman’s team. I’ll try to have her open her heart for that discussion.“

Minjoo, for the first time in a while, felt like she found someone she could really depend on. She felt a sudden relief that she couldn’t hold her tears back anymore. Who would’ve thought that she would find it to someone she considered as a love rival.

“Minjoo-ssi…” Jimin cupped her face and softly wiped her tears with her thumbs. “As much as I want to have you let it out, Yujin would get worried if she finds out that you cried. She might lose her concentration in the competition.”

“I know…” Minjoo pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her tears. “I’m sorry.”

“Come on.” Jimin arched her arm around Minjoo’s back and started softly squeezing her shoulder. “It’s going to be fine. If Yujin doesn’t believe you, I’ll be there to back you up. I heard everything that that woman said. I am going to back you up!”

“Thank you, Jimin-ssi…”

“DIREC…TOR…”

Seulgi’s voice faded when she finally found Joohyun in the same place where she found a couple making out during the prelims. She found Joohyun just standing there, looking at an empty space.

“Director?” Seulgi called in a louder voice, making Joohyun flinch. She was surprised when the young director turned to her with misty eyes. “Is there anything wrong?”

“N-Nothing.” Joohyun answered, forcing a smile on her face but Seulgi wasn’t convinced at all. She worriedly went closer to the smaller girl.

“Are you sure?” Seulgi asked. “It seems like you cried…”

“No…” Joohyun shook her head. “I just got dry eyes… This is like the side effect I got from getting LASIK. I forgot to bring my drops with me.”

“I see.” Seulgi let out a sigh. “You suddenly disappeared, I got worried.”

“I am not a kid anymore, Kang-daeri.” Joohyun answered with a sigh. “There’s no need to worry like that.”

Seulgi was surprised with the sudden cold treatment. “I-I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.”

The bassist then forced a smile. “I’ll go back to our waiting room then.”

It felt weird. She was just being sweet to her a while ago but now she’s giving her a cold shoulder. Seulgi thought she already got used to it since Joohyun would give her a cold shoulder in the office from time to time but this one felt off.

Was it because what Yerim told her was actually bothering her?

Seulgi wasn’t even able to get far when she felt a hand grab hers. “Seulgi-ya…”

The bassist’s heart started to play its own bass sound when she heard that call from Joohyun. She looked around to make sure that no one was there. 

“J-Joohyunie?” Seulgi turned around and looked at the other girl. “T-There’s really something wrong, am I right?”

“Nothing…” Joohyun answered in a weak voice, her eyes were on the ground. “Seulgi…”

“O-Oh, Joohyunie?” Seulgi felt like her ears were going to explode as if warm air was coming out from it. 

“Can you… hug me here?”

Seulgi felt her world stop. Even her breathing stopped, she had to take a deep breath when her body finally realised that she was already out of air. “Y-Y-Yes?”

“I am asking…” Joohyun moved closer to her until her head rested on Seulgi's chest. “...if you can hug me here…”

“R-R-Right now?” Seulgi’s malfunctioning continued. Her arms were flying here and there. 

“Uhm…” Joohyun nodded. “Right now…”

Seulgi gulped. She had internal battles with herself until she finally responded to Joohyun’s request. She gave the needy director the hug that she’s been asking her. She then heard Joohyun chuckling and she was sure that it was because of the loud beating of her heart. 

“I-I-Is this fine?” Seulgi asked, which was answered by Joohyun with a nod. 

“Yes… But you don’t have to be this stiff. Calm down.” Joohyun wrapped her arms around Seulgi’s waist. “No one will see us here anyway…”

A smile then curved up Seulgi’s lips as her hug to Joohyun tightened. Seulgi then started snickering which caught Joohyun’s attention.

“What are you laughing at?” Joohyun cutely asked.

“Nothing.” Seulgi closed her eyes. “I just remembered that the last time I came in this spot I saw a couple making out—”

Seulgi’s eyes shot open when Joohyun suddenly moved away a bit. “It was you!?”

The bassist’s mind out for a moment. The ringing noise from her ears was so loud that she felt like falling down. Her eyes blinked really fast before she finally found her voice back. 

“I-It was you…?”

Joohyun’s mouth slowly opened up in realisation. “W-Wait! It’s… I… Ahh… It’s—”

Joohyun was silenced when Seulgi brought her back to her arms, now in a much tighter hug–-one hand placed at the back of her head while the other was wrapped around her waist. 

“K-Kang-daeri…?”

“It’s okay…” The goofy smile on her face was placed with a faint one. “It’s fine… It’s all in the past anyway…”

Joohyun then felt Seulgi running her fingers on her hair, calming her down together with those words of assurance. She buried her face on Seulgi’s shoulder.

“I guess you wanted to make a new memory in this place, right?” Seulgi wet her lips that dried rather quickly. “It’s fine. I want to erase everything that would remind you of him. If this is how it must go then I am completely fine with it. I told you already, you can use me however you want.”

“Seulgi-ya…” Joohyun’s hug to Seulgi tightened. “Thank you, Teddy Bear…”

Seulgi snickered. “I didn’t know that you have a thing for PDA, Joohyunie.”

“Ya!” Joohyun whined, which made Seulgi laugh more. 

Seulgi wanted to ask how Joohyun’s ex even managed to get inside a studio but the bassist chose not to ask anything about it. She believed that it wasn’t important. They were in the process of erasing him in Joohyun’s memories anyway. Talking about him won’t help at all. 

“The recording is about to start, let’s go back?” Seulgi told Joohyun as she slowly let go of her. Joohyun only nodded and reached for Seulgi’s hand. The bassist gave her a warm smile, completely concealing the fact that her thoughts were a huge mess. Yerim’s words kept echoing inside her head. 

They let go of each other’s hands when they were already in the hallway of the waiting rooms. When they entered the room, Yujin and Minjeong almost jumped on Seulgi, shouting at their unnie for suddenly disappearing. 

“What on earth is wrong with you puppies again!?” Seulgi asked as she pinched their cheeks. Minjoo and Jimin shrieked by the corner because that would surely ruin their makeup. 

“Seulgi-unnie! Taeyeon-ssi was visiting waiting rooms just a while ago!” Yujin shouted, which made Seulgi want to headbutt the younger girl if only she could. 

“Taeyeon-ssi?” Seulgi repeated. 

“What’s with that nonchalant face!?” Minjeong asked. “She was obviously looking for you! She was smiling so wide when we opened the door for her but her face suddenly lost the glow when she found out that you were not here!”

Seungwan could