“I will be back with you in a minute, Yuri-ssi.”

“Yes, okay,” she chimed after the hairstylist, dropping back into one of those swivel chairs the salon usually had.

She let loose a weary sigh.

She didn’t even need to take a peek at the time to know that it was currently five in the morning.

And here she was. All up and about at the salon to get herself primped up and ready for the day’s schedule that was mainly composed of the filming for her latest acting gig— Fashion King.

It was a fun and enriching experience, she supposed. To be able to finally put to use what she had learnt— and studied— back at drama school to work, was in a way… fulfilling, she should say. It was a nice change, breaking out of the usual routine of putting on performance after performances.

However, there were times where it did get a little lonely—doing all this schedules by herself. She’d honestly rather be surrounded by the lively energy of her eight best friends, all of whom possessed a flavor that was unique to their own. And it was only when all nine of them were together as one, would it ever feel ‘right’.

Yuri fought down a yawn, tangling her fingers through hair that was damp from the washing earlier. She caught a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror.

Eyes, a bloodshot, angry red with dark bags weighing heavily beneath them; and complexion, that was a pasty shade of tan. Oh, the amount of make up she would need to look presentable for the day…

She was starting to regret not getting herself her much needed beauty sleep the night before, when instead she had stayed up all night, thinking— brooding— over that silly little squabble she had with Jessica the other day.

Silly little squabble?

It ended off with them screaming their heads off till they could feel the veins throbbing at the side of their neck and Jessica walking out on her with eyes glistening with angry tears.

A major argument with the potential of triggering World War III was more like it.

And the memory of it was left, still tender and raw in Yuri.

It started with a phone call from a friend. A sunbae. An unnie.

As soon as the call ended, Jessica had kicked up a giant fuss.

One thing led to another and it soon became a screaming fest.

Which… wasn’t exactly much of a surprise, considering the last time they fought over a relatively similar matter, they actually ended up not speaking to each other for months on end.

It had been the most biggest fight they had ever had in the history of their relationship— friendship. Or whatever that defined them as of now.

And the one they had a couple nights before was a close second.

‘You jolly well know you can’t afford to be careless again. You were lucky that it came out only as a blind item. And even luckier, our management managed to get it off the sites in seconds. If you know what’s best, you would stay far away from her. Because, god help you if it happens again, you’ll be ruined. We’ll all be ruined!’

‘What, so I can’t even keep in contact with my friends anymore? ’

‘She’s your ex’, for crying out loud!’

‘You’re my ex’ too, and I’m still talking to you aren’t I? Heck, we’re practically living across each other! Tell me how that isn’t any more scandalous?’

Many things were said that night. Mainly scathing remarks here and there that hit a little too close to home. However, it was the look of hurt that had flashed across Jessica’s face— right before she stormed out of her apartment— which struck a tender chord deep within Yuri.

Now, whenever she ran through that night in her head, guilt, anger and frustration would fill her to the brim. But it was mostly the sinking feeling of guilt that pooled heavily in her chest.

And the fact that they hadn’t spoken since, only made Yuri feel worse if that was even possible.

How was she going to face her the next time they meet— on their next schedule as a group—, she had no idea. But she could imagine that the air between them would be unbearably awkward and tensed.

And to prolong the inevitable, Yuri had even gone down to another salon that wasn’t their usual one, just to avoid running into Jessica.

This was almost a re-run of what happened a year ago.

A sharp gasp broke her train of thoughts.

Eyes focusing and flickering back up onto the mirror, she found herself staring into a familiar face.

Her breath hitched upon recognition.

It was Tall, Tanned and Pretty.

Wait, no.

Hayoung. Her name.

The girl straightened up, body immediately dipping— fumbling— into a respectful bow. “Yuri-sunbae, hello.”

Her greeting was especially soft and meek, and when she drew back into an upright position she had on a sheepish, nervous look that Yuri found to be utterly adorable. It brought on her first genuine smile of the day.

“Hello!” She greeted back sunnily, which got her back a shy, bashful smile from the younger girl. “Well, don’t let me keep you from sitting down.” She said, with a slight edge of tease, lips curling into a playful smile. “Just don’t hold me responsible if you don’t get your hair done now.”

A nervous giggle, and Hayoung was soon scrambling into the chair beside her.

They sat in silence for a good minute or two.

Allowing her eyes to wander, Yuri observed through the mirror, how impeccably straight and rigid the younger girl was sitting as she and nibbled at her bottom lip. More than once, their gaze would clash and the girl would quickly avert her eyes away, cheeks spotting a light pink hue.

Yuri chuckled, unable to resist herself, deciding to break the silence at last.

“Are you here alone? Or did came with your other members?”    

The girl blinked, starting slightly, looking almost surprise that Yuri was even talking to her. “Oh, um, no. Namjoo, Yookyung and Nauen-unnie… They are all over at the other end, getting their nails and makeup done now. The rest of the other unnies are getting ready at another salon.”

Yuri nodded musingly. She hadn’t noticed it before— mainly because the responses she had received so far were no more than a sentence— but the girl’s voice was surprisingly deep, bearing a husky undertone, and sounded rather mature for someone of her age.

She would have never guessed that she was only in her first year in high school.

“Speaking of makeup…” hummed Yuri. She paused, taking a brief glance at her reflection in the mirror. “It’s embarrassing that you’re seeing me like this. I look horrible this morning.” She laughed, albeit feeling all the more self-conscious.

Because she did look horrible.

Hideous eyebags and all, looking so very sleep deprived and disheveled.

She didn’t look anything like an idol one bit.

She looked more like a burnt out college student.

Just… Yuri.

Plain old Yuri without all the glitz and glamor of an idol.

“I still think Sunbae is pretty, with or without makeup…” murmured Hayoung softly. Glancing up at her, Yuri noted that her eyes were casted down onto the ground and her ears were burning a bright pink, and that she looked completely— absolutely— embarrassed.

Cute.

And for some odd reason, it filled her chest with a soft pleasant warmth.

Yuri chuckled, eyes twinkling back at the younger girl. “I’m glad you think that way. You’re pretty yourself too, Hayoung-ssi.” She lilted, grinning mirthfully.

The girl blushed a shade deeper. That tight-lipped sheepish smile, which Yuri was getting closely familiar with, had made its appearance once more.

“Thank you,” she nodded in a small bow.

Yuri flashed her a crooked grin, and honestly she would have said a lot more if it weren’t for the interruption of the hairstylist.

“I’m so sorry for the delay, Yuri-ssi.”

“It’s okay,” She smiled kindly up at the stylist.

“So what style can I do for you today?”

“A natural kind of wave will be nice, thank you.”

And they were once again, back to business.

After which, conversations with Hayoung had more or less came to standstill with only small talks filling in the gaps of silences. Mainly because neither of them felt especially comfortable talking— opening up— between the hairstylists, that were hovering over them at the moment. But nonetheless, Yuri still enjoyed every second of her time that was spent talking to her.

She fumbled with her words a little, but Yuri found that to be adorable, though quickly passing that off as nerves from talking to a sunbae. Which was pretty normal and something she still did even up till today.

But speaking to Hayoung, made her realize that it had been a long time since she last spoken to a dongsaeng.

Yes, Seohyun included.

Ever since she, along with Taeyeon and Tiffany, was selected to be part of the group’s subunit, Yuri had barely even seen anymore. With all that constant practicing of new choreographies and recording of songs… who could blame her for not calling Yuri up for a nice chat?

Yuri hopped off from the swivel chair, hair done— perfect and flawless. Though, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that their conversation had to finally come to an end.

“Well, I’m off to do my makeup. Hopefully we’ll see more of each other in the future.”

Looking back, she noted the slight fall in the corners of Hayoung’s lips, her bottom lip jutting out ever so slightly, almost in a tiny pout.

She shot the girl a winning grin and pumped her fist, winking.

“APink, fighting!”

--

A/N: Thank you all for the kind comments, subscribing, upvoting and reading. Really. I can never ever thank you guys enough. :) I guess most of you would have noticed by now that each chapter is alternating between YulSic and Yuri/Hayoung. And It'll be like this for a while... till later on when things really start to get complicated. So yeah, I'll try to update soon! Thank you for reading. :)