Yoonjo let out a sharp breath, her face contorting due to the pain her recent injury was causing her. She shifted her weight awkwardly, watching as her fellow group members practiced their recently tweaked dance routine with an air that seemed effortless.

She didn’t want to be bitter.

Her eyes fluttered closed, trying to keep her thoughts away from the performances that loomed just around the corner. Every stage the rookie group stepped on was one in which she couldn’t participate. Sliding down the cheaply painted walls of the small dance studio, she laid her injured leg out in the least painful manner that she could manage.

From the corner of her eyes she spotted Hyelim, who gave her a look of pity. Pity. Yoonjo had to physically strain herself from getting up and wiping the thoughtless expression right off of the rapper’s pretty little face.  Yoonjo was being incredibly self-absorbed and rude, as she had been for the past week and a half. She was aware of how she was acting. The ing dead leg of hers was to blame for the rotten mood change, but more than anything, it was the looks.

A scowl was fixed upon her features even at the mere thought of how she was recently treated. The other members of Hello Venus acted as she was an expensive wine glass that needed to be kept in a china cabinet.

Yoonjo wasn’t dying, she wasn’t about to break and she certainly wasn’t to be treated like a child. She ed up her leg and it was her own goddamn fault. She didn’t need someone pitying her. What she needed was someone to tell her how she had royally ed up her debut and needed to get back to her usual self.

Not that was saying she was much of a charmer on a regular basis, as Yoonjo was usually cast out from the group due to her inability to have any sort of filter. She just said whatever she pleased, and it came out like word vomit, to everyone else’s general annoyance. Yooyoung made a point of addressing her general oddities on a regular basis. They were only small things, like how she stared at others without a thought of how uncomfortable it would make them, her general fidgeting, and especially her fear of physical contact.

Perhaps the last notion was more than small, as it had become somewhat of a joke among the group-members. Most of them found it absolutely hilarious to touch her lightly as she made the beds, or to push her hair out of her eyes as she cut vegetables for dinner. It was anything but to the vocalist, who wanted nothing more than to be given her own personal space. It terrified her when others touched her, sometimes she would flip out at them. On one occasion she managed to have a full-blown panic attack when she was back-hugged while folding laundry. Yoonjo couldn’t fathom how they wouldn’t get the hint that- obviously – it affected her a little too greatly to be considered a joke.

But no, that would be far too unentertaining for the seemingly immature group mates. She kept the grimace unchanged on her face, watching Nara do an extremely cute wink to the mirror which they practiced diagonal to.

Yoonjo kept her eyes fixed on the direction the wink had intended to go. Her eyes widened a bit, as it appeared it had been projected to her (or so she thought, as she swore Nara’s eyes had been looking at her).

Great, now she was also delusional.

The flush on her pale cheeks was all but noticeable, much to the dismay of the vocalist. All the while, her eyes trained on the mirror, as if willing it to rewind and show her the scene just once more. She was now almost positive she had dreamt up the scenario.

It wasn’t unknown to the members that Yoonjo had a thing for Nara. Rather than thing, they liked to call it an obsession.  She was teased for staring from across the table at breakfast at the visual, blushing madly when the older would say even two words, and especially… habitually staring at only her when they practiced.

Yoonjo blamed Nara for her injury.

She could hardly be held accountable when her crush was dancing in such a discreetly y manner that Yoonjo figured must be illegal. It wasn’t any secret the younger girl was practically seeing stars anytime Nara so much as moved, let alone made suggestive eyes at the mirror as she did some cute little dance routine. Yoonjo wasn’t entirely sure how she was able to survive being in the same group.

“What are you staring at?” A voice prodded Yoonjo out of her inner monologue.

“What?” She spluttered out intelligently, her eyes trailing over to a very sweaty and exhausted Nara, expression brightening ten-fold in comparison to just minutes prior. Nara gulped down her water excessively, clearly too thirsty in her current state to continue the conversation. Oh my god. The only thought going through her mind was that she wanted to be that water bottle, her vision trained on the lips of her other. Blinking quickly, Yoonjo realized how incredibly creepy that fantasy was, and how she should probably disregard it completely.

“You were good- out there, y’know… practicing and everything,” Yoonjo felt herself saying, though her brain was telling her to shut up, as per usual. She could feel the dull pain in her leg, reminding herself that Nara did nothing but act as a major distraction for Yoonjo.

However, as a bright smile appeared on the visual’s face, all of those doubting thoughts were lost. It was unfair to be that beautiful, Yoonjo was certain of it. Every bad feeling washed away, leaving her completely lost in front of the visual. How was it possible to wipe away every sense of insecurity, annoyance, and bitterness with only a smile?

Yoonjo blinked- Nara must have some kind of hidden voodoo talents.

The younger wasn’t paying attention as she was given thanks for her compliment; focus only on the lips which spread into yet another completely unfair angelic smile.

“Wow.”

Yoonjo didn’t even realize what she had said until the opposite’s face contorted into a look of confusion, then realization. . Her face burned so red she swore she was the spitting image of a tomato, head turning downward in pure embarrassment. Yoonjo could only imagine the things her group members had blabbed to Nara, and she had never been able to discreetly hide her feelings to begin with. She was about to say something- anything- so that she could diffuse the situation her thoughtless exclamation had just created. It was Nara who opened to say something, before it was cut off by Ara, who announced it was time to head back to the dorms.

The two silently picked themselves up off the hardwood floor. Yoonjo winced, though it had nothing to do with her injury, but the hand that steadied her. It felt like every one of Nara’s fingers burned against her hip, each one setting fire to clothed skin. The scary part was that Yoonjo didn’t mind it- at all.

“Can I talk to you later?” Yoonjo jumped slightly upon hearing the silky voice belonging to the taller of the two, who had leaned down to whisper in her ear.

Yoonjo only squeaked in reply.