“Catch me if you can!”

“Ok girls, that’s it for today. All of you have been doing a really good job, so you can take a day off tomorrow. See you back here Wednesday night.”

Sunny barely heard their dance instructor as she was too busy catching her breath on the floor. They’ve been practicing since 4pm and unless her phone was lying to her it was currently a few minutes past midnight. All of her joints plus body parts she didn’t even know she could hurt was aching at the moment. Of course, Sooyoung accidentally elbowing her in the ear earlier didn’t exactly help matters either.

“Hoo boy. I’m going to drop dead one of these days and my corpse will still be doing the choreo for this song I’m telling you.” Yoona whined as she collapsed onto the smooth floor next to Sunny.

“How are you feeling Sunny? I heard Sooyoung got you with her elbow earlier. That has got to hurt! The girl is made of nothing but bones.” Hyoyeon asked, handing her and the doe beside her a bottle of water each.

“Just another move from the Choi book of martial arts! It’s from page 9!” Sooyoung exclaimed while shadow boxing. It only lasted for a moment however, until the smile faded from her face and she too collapsed beside Yoona.

“They’re trying to kill us. I swear. We must have done something wrong. Maybe we should apologize for whatever it is we did.” Tiffany said from across the room, back supported against the practice room wall adorned with the famous cloud prints, dark circles evident around her eyes and her hair was a mess.

“They’ve always been working us this hard. Maybe our bodies are finally breaking down from the strain.” Sunny said, inhaling all the water from her bottle in just a couple of gulps.

“Maybe we’re just getting old.” Chirped Seohyun, who was doing some cool down stretches against the adjacent wall, not looking any worse for wear.

“Yah! Shut up maknae! Don’t lump yourself with us when you can still stand up and do those stretchy exercises. I don’t think I can even bend down to touch my toes without popping something in my back.” Sooyoung berated, trying to sound threatening but it came out more like a muffled whine because her face was pressed against the wooden floor, too lazy to lift it up.

"I think management is just trying to make sure we've memorised the new choreo since it changed after Jessica unnie left." Seohyun deducted. That was probably the answer, but it didn't justify them being worked this hard because it didn't seem like they were going to be coming back with this song anytime soon.

“Wanna go out for supper? I’m famished!” Tiffany suggested while grabbing her tummy.

“Ddeokbokki! You joining us Sunny?” Hyoyeon asked, suddenly coming alive again at the prospect of eating.

“Nah, I have to film for Roommate tomorrow. I’m waiting for Hyomin to pick me up and I’ll just crash at her place so that she can drop me off at Seongbukdong in the morning.”

“Why don’t you just go back to Seongbukdong straight away and get more sleep in, instead of commuting from Hyomin’s place unnie?” Seohyun asked out of curiosity.

“Because I miss my girlfriend, and I’m so tired I’m probably gonna snore tonight. Don’t want the cameras catching me snoring. I still have an image.” Sunny grinned at the maknae, who nodded in understanding.

“Sunny just wants to see Hyomin. Let the grownups do grownup things Seobaby.” Hyoyeon winked at Sunny, who swatted her arms at their group’s lead dancer in vain. Seohyun was left with a blank expression on her face which immediately turned red and flustered as the gears in her brain finally clicked into place, causing her to utter out a meek “Omo!”

“The bunny is so beat up she can barely tie her shoelaces, so I doubt anything will go on tonight. How bout you Taeng? You joining us?” Yuri asked their leader who had remained quiet on the couch throughout their entire conversation.

It took Yuri a few weeks to cool down enough to talk to Taeyeon, but eventually Jessica’s constant assurances and her seeing how happy Jessica was now that she’s left the group has obviously swayed her to forgive the leader. If there was still any buried animosity or bad blood, Yuri sure did a good job hiding it from anyone else because as far as the other members knew, everything else was all gravy.

“Uh…I don’t think so. I’m waiting for someone too.” Taeyeon answered, attention never leaving the phone in her hands.

“Waiting for Baek? Oh must be so good to be young and so in love~” Hyoyeon wistfully drawled, feigning jealousy.

“Isn’t Baekhyun in Japan now?” Tiffany asked, slightly confused. She always made a point to keep track of the groups in their company, just because she was the member of Girls’ Generation that was closest to her hoobaes.

“Nope, not Baekhyun.” Taeyeon simply stated, but there was a slight edge in her voice that Sunny noticed. Before she could ponder on it, Sooyoung jumped into the conversation.

“Seeing other guys while he’s not around huh? How devious! I approve!” Sooyoung grinned sneakily, fully expecting her playful leader to go along with her.

“Nope. Not a guy either.” Taeyeon stated again while putting her phone down, looking anxious. Their leader’s actions and words were enough to arouse the suspicion and curiosity of all 7 members in the room, but before they could act on it there were two short raps on the door. The knocks were timid and had the room not been so quiet at the moment they probably would have missed it completely, but as the attention of the room was brought to the door two more knocks came, slightly louder this time.

“I’ll get it. Maybe Lee oppa forgot something.” Seohyun said, striding over to the door to let their choreographer in. Something was definitely not right however. Lee oppa never was one to knock on doors. He had one of those brash fiery personalities that allowed him to get way with simply barging into rooms without a hint of warning. The surprised shriek that soon followed Seohyun opening the door immediately raised a few alarms in all their heads and Sooyoung had even stood up to save their maknae from the supposed perpetrator.

“Jessica unnie what are you doing here??!!” Seohyun asked/shrieked before enveloping the petite girl in front of her in a tight hug, not giving Jessica a chance to respond.

Sure enough, it was Jessica standing there in the doorway, wearing Seohyun as an oversized muffler based on how tight the young girl was holding on to her neck.

“I—oof! I missed you too Seobaby!” Jessica grunted, turning blue from the tight embrace. Whether Seohyun realized this or not she didn’t react to it, and Hyoyeon and Sooyoung had to pry the young maknae off their former member.

“Retirement looks good on you Sica. You sure gained a few pounds locked up in that apartment of yours.” Sooyoung joked as she took her turn to hug her close friend. It was evident that the taller girl was fighting back a few tears, but nobody commented on it. In fact, there was barely a dry eye in the room. It had been more than a few weeks since they had last seen their former member, and this served as their first official reunion since the company had dropped Jessica from their group. Save for Yuri and Taeyeon, none of the members could find any time in their schedules to meet up with Jessica.

“Yah! I’m not retired! I’m just enjoying other things. You idols are always so sensitive about your weight. Life without a weighing scale is amazing! I had two lunches today! TWO!” Jessica said while hugging Yuri for a second longer than everybody else. Sunny noticed Taeyeon was still seated on the couch, unmoving although the leader had a small smile on her face, fighting back tears of her own. Sunny wondered if it would kill the leader to show some semblance of real emotion sometimes.

“Why is everyone crying?! And Taeng I’ve been waiting for you for half an hour downstairs! The least you could do was tell me that you’re done with practice so that I know it’s safe to come up here!” Jessica had asked, despite borrowing Hyoyeon’s sleeve to wipe the tears currently staining her own cheeks.

“Wait what? Jessica was the one you were waiting for unnie?” Yoona asked, confused.

“Err surprise….?” Taeyeon meekly said, slowly sinking into the couch she was sitting on, trying to eschew their questions.

“Why the secrecy? You could’ve just told us you were meeting Jess instead of hiding her from us Taengoo. We were just about to head out to eat, come on and join us Jess!” Tiffany questioned before turning her attention back to the blonde American in front of her.

“It wasn’t a secret! I wasn’t trying to hide her…from all of you.” Taeyeon softly finished, but Sunny felt like she was the only one who noticed the slight change of tone at the word ‘all’ and how Taeyeon’s eyes flickered to Yuri as she said it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mention it beforehand girls, but Taeng owes me a cup of coffee. I’ll be free to join all of you after that though! It will only take a few minutes.” Jessica said with an innocent smile while Taeyeon couldn’t make eye-contact with the rest of the girls as she suddenly found the sleeve of her tshirt to be the most fascinating thing in the world at the moment. The former was obviously oblivious to the suspicious looks everyone was throwing the pair of them. Who on earth has coffee at 12:30am??

“Coffee date with another girl this late eh Taengoo? Should Baekhyun be worried?” Sooyoung lightheartedly joked, trying to ease up the atmosphere that was rapidly crossing the threshold between bewilderment and awkward.

“Don’t think he should be. I’m not dating him anymore. We broke up a couple of weeks back.” Taeyeon stated simply, as if she had just read the weather off her phone and had told them that it was going to be cloudy with a small chance of rain. Okay, the atmosphere was officially awkward right now.

“WHAT?! Taeng you didn’t even tell me! What happened?? Is everything alright?” Tiffany exploded, eyes bugging out and flailing her arms wildly. The rest of the girls looked equally as stunned. Sunny had to remind herself to pick her jaw off the floor before she left the dance studio.

“It’s fine. Everything is okay. I’ll fill you girls in later okay? Right now I’m tired and falling asleep, so Jess and I are going to stop by the nearest café and go about some…business. All of you go on ahead, and we’ll catch up with you guys after this.” Taeyeon robotically said as if she were handing them a pre-written automated answer. Everyone recognized this as her ‘leader voice’ and the default setting she went to when she wanted to quickly solve problems she didn’t want any part in. Taeyeon got up and gently nudged Jessica out the door by the small of her back.

“Oh…okay. See you later unnie…” Seohyun waved the pair goodbye and they managed to catch Jessica’s beautiful bright smile before the pair exited out the door and rounded the corner, led by Taeyeon tugging at Jessica’s wrist.

“Okay…what in the blue hell was that all about??” Sooyoung asked, and the rest of the girls immediately burst into a chorus of speculation and theories, all of them nowhere close to the mark. It was understandable, because other than the parties involved, only Sunny, Yuri and Tiffany knew about Jessica’s feelings for the leader. Sunny just wondered if that had anything to do with Taeyeon breaking up with Baekhyun. She did seem a little more…enthusiastic at practice lately.

“You alright Yul?” Sunny approached the odd girl out, who was standing staring at the doorway with a blank look on her face. Out of all of them, Yuri was probably the one that was the most surprised. Sunny just wondered how the black pearl was going to digest the new bit of development. She was worried that the girl would throw a raging fit or burst out crying because of her feelings for their former member.

“I-I’m fine. I just need to fill my stomach. I also need soju. A LOT of soju.” Yuri responded after a fair bit of time, and Hyoyeon who was within earshot agreed with her.

“Alright everyone! Let’s just get our booze on and wait for the two of them to join us later with an explanation.” Hyoyeon suggested, and the rest of the girls agreed and proceeded to pack up their things.

The door swung open a second time that time, and now standing in the doorway was Sunny’s girlfriend. Hyomin looked slightly frazzled, and there was still traces of shock and surprise on her features.

"Geez learn to knock why don't you?" Sooyoung told Hyomin, having been surprised by the sudden swinging of the door.

“What’s wrong babe? You okay?” Sunny asked with a concerned expression, immediately making her way to her girlfriend and caressing the taller girl’s cheek.

“I-I just bumped into Jessica-unnie and Taengoo-unnie at the elevators. I...I think they were holding hands! I didn’t even know they were close again. Last I heard they just had an argument or something. Is that a normal thing? Are they friends again now?” Hyomin asked, and the theories and speculations erupted anew around them with the information update provided by Hyomin.

“Gee…I wonder sweetie. I wonder.” Sunny mused thoughtfully.

“SOJU. NOW!” Yuri shouted and marched out the door, leaving a trail of flustered girls following closely behind her.

*******************************************************

“Do you think they’re dating?” Sunny heard Hyomin ask beside her. The pair was currently seated in Hyomin’s white Porsche, navigating the dark streets of Seoul with nothing but the car headlights illuminating their path.

“Who? Taeng and Jess? Nah. Not yet at least. Taeyeon would tell us if they were.” Sunny dismissed, eyes trying to catch the streetlights as they pass by while her right thumb was absentmindedly drawing circles and other various shapes on the back of Hyomin’s left hand.

“You can take a nap you know. I’ll wake you up when we reach home.” Hyomin said out of consideration. Sunny just smiled at her choice of words. She had been spending so much time at her girlfriend’s place that it became a bit of a habit for her to call it her home. Between Hyomin’s apartment and the Roommate house Sunny led a nomadic lifestyle that she never imagined herself having.

Sunny was always fond of things being grounded, meaning she loved having a constant point or place in her life to return to. A safe haven where she knew the rest of the world couldn’t touch her or hurt her. For the longest time, that place was the dorm that she shared with the rest of the SNSD members. Now, it was either in Hyomin’s arms or the shared house in Seongbukdong. Sunny knew the latter was only temporary and that one day the show would have to end, leaving that option unavailable to her. Sunny and Nana even joked once about purchasing the house once SBS’s lease on it was over just to preserve their memories.

“Did you really fall asleep? Wow. Okay. Guess I’m driving on my own then.” Hyomin grumbled at Sunny’s unmoving figure.

“I’m sorry babe, I just spaced out for awhile. I’m having a Hyomin moment.” Sunny giggled as she poked fun at her girlfriend’s tendency to blank out.

“Do I really space out that often?” Hyomin wondered aloud, a small pout on her luscious lips. Sunny giggled at the frown on her girlfriend’s face, obviously displeased and frustrated at her own shortcomings.

“Yeah you do, but it’s okay. It’s kinda cute, as long as you’re not daydreaming about other girls or anything like that.” Sunny laughed as she assured her girlfriend, who suddenly had a contemplative look on her face. The car was stopped at a red light, and Hyomin’s features that were illuminated by the dim streetlights seeping in through the tinted windows was causing Sunny to fall for the girl all over again. That was the magic that Park Hyomin had on her.

“Mmm. I went on a date with Sojin in my last daydream. It was fun.” Sunny heard Hyomin say.  She could practically feel Hyomin’s mischievous grin on her, observing the SNSD singer for any signs of jealousy. Pfft. Like Sunny would give in that easily. 

“Girl’s Day?” Sunny asked simply.

“Yeah, that Sojin. With the red hair. Yum.” Before she could stop herself Sunny felt her grip on Hyomin’s hand tighten slightly, possessively. She was sure she wasn’t the jealous type.

"I didn't know you were into older women Minnie."

"I'm dating you aren't I?"

"Yah. I'm only older by 15 days."

"That's more than 2 weeks. A lot can happen in 2 weeks." 

"I'm sorry I'm old Hyomin."

"I forgive you."

Sunny gave Hyomin her best attempt at a glare but she couldn't maintain eye contact with her girlfriend because both of them were about to burst into laughter at how ridiculous the topic of their conversation was about. Still, Sojin huh? Sunny had to admit Sojin was a very attractive girl. She was even guilty of saving pictures of the Girl's Day leader's Maxim photoshoot in her phone, not that she would admit that.

“What did you two do on your date?” Sunny pressed on.

“We watched a movie. I couldn’t remember what movie though. We were too busy paying attention to each other.” Hyomin’s thumb gently the back of Sunny’s hand, probably as an indicator that the bunny was squeezing it a bit too tight. Noticing this Sunny loosened her grip considerably, a tinge of red on her cheeks.

“How sweet. Also, Girl’s Day might have to put up an ad for a new leader soon. I think their current one is about to mysteriously ‘disappear’.” No, no Sunny wasn’t the jealous type. She just had a warped sense of humour when she is tired.

“Oh no not poor Sojin! I’m sorry Sojin-unnie, please don’t haunt me from the afterlife once Sunny is done with you!” Hyomin whined apologetically to no one in particular, but her girlfriend’s aegyo didn’t do much to cool down the slow fire kindling inside her that was the result of Hyomin’s teasing.

“So…red hair is yummy huh?”

“It’s really striking don’t you think? That shade of red is so fiery! I think you’d pull off the look really well sweetie. You should try it sometime.” Hyomin was trying her best to do damage control, and Sunny knew this.

“Red is more of a summer colour though. It doesn’t really go well with this cold weather.” Sunny wasn’t going to let Hyomin get away with teasing her that easily though.

“I’ll look forward to your summer comeback next year then! I can wait. Patience is my middle name!”

“Yah! I never said I’d do it! And I highly doubt Patience is your middle name. It’s more like ‘Dorky’ or ‘Clumsy’.”

“Oh I know you’ll dye it red. It’s because I told you to, so you’d do it.” Hyomin stated simply, and Sunny smiled despite herself because she knew it was true.

“Manipulative little rascal.” Okay, maybe Sunny was the jealous type.

*******************************************

“Big day later?” Hyomin asked her girlfriend as she tucked herself under the thick comforter on Hyomin’s bed. The SNSD Energizer Bunny looked like she was in severe need of recharging.

“Yeah. I think we’re gonna learn Pansori for Ryohei, and Young Ji is bringing Hara over for dinner later. It’s been a long time since I last saw her, so it’s going to be fun!” Sunny struggled to finish because she kept being interrupted by her own yawns. Hyomin pinched her girlfriend’s cheek because of how adorable she looked, nestled in the large bed.

“I take it you’re too tired to uh…fool around tonight?” Hyomin leaned in and whispered suggestively into Sunny’s ear, leaving a trail of butterfly kisses along her jawline until she reached her lips.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea babe. Unless you want to make love to an unresponsive log, then be my guest.” Sunny said with her eyes drooping shut. Not from arousal, but from pure fatigue.

“Oooh, a submissive Soonkyu. That’ll be a first.”  Hyomin breathed as she straddled her girlfriend, planting a firm kiss on her lips.

“You go on right ahead. Wake me up when you’re done.” Sunny smiled wearily into the kiss, and Hyomin halted in her approach as her fiery eyes met Sunny’s fatigued ones. She understood immediately and dismounted her girlfriend, planting a soft kiss on her forehead as she got up to leave.

“Sleep tight sweetie. I’ll wake you up in a few hours.” Hyomin said as she turned off the bedroom lights.

“Wait Minnie.”

Hyomin halted in her footsteps, a small swell of hope rising in her.

“This bed is too big for me alone. Cuddle time please?” Sunny requested while half asleep. Hyomin just smiled and made her way back to the bed, slipping underneath the covers and immediately feeling a smaller pair of arms encircling her body and a mess of hair covering her senses. Sunny rested her head on the crook of Hyomin’s neck and immediately dozed off.

The poor girl must have been so tired, Hyomin thought. A day with Hara would do her good though. Hara always had the ability to lift people up no matter how tired they were. Hyomin tried to remember when was the last time she had spent time with the Kara visual.

It suddenly hit her. The last time she saw Hara was during the Roommate audition, where she was giving support to Young Ji. Come to think of it, Jackson was there too. Hyomin inwardly thanked the fact that none of them had told Sunny they had seen her at the audition. Hara wouldn’t bring it up later today, would she?

“You smell like tangerines.” Hyomin heard Sunny mumble against her neck, breaking Hyomin away from her thoughts. A small smile crept onto her features as she adjusted herself so that Sunny would be more comfortable, even if it meant that Hyomin was probably going to wake up with a stiff neck later on.

It was okay though. Sunny was worth it.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Welp. I didn't know if I wanted Jessica to end up with Taeng or not in the end, but I decided why not? It just seemed too far-fetched to suddenly make Taeyeon like girls out of nowhere so I kinda just left it open ended. At less than 4000 words this is my shortest chapter in awhile, so I hope you guys don't get too mad! I had the general outline of these last few chapters in my draft since like, chapter 4 of this story but actually writing them out is taking waaay longer than I thought. Its almost as if I forgot how to speak English or something because I can't seem to formulate and articulate my words well.

I'm kind of scared that I'm losing interest in this story. Not in a "I don't want to write this anymore" way, but more of a "life is getting in the way" kind of way and I've put this story in the backseat a fair few times. I used to make sure that I would write at least a few words a day but now there are times that I go a whole week without opening MS Word. So that is another reason I want to end this soon, before I start to fizzle out and give a lackluster finish to the story. 

I think the story is pretty good so far isn't it? I mean, I'm proud of it. Would be a shame if the quality just dipped horribly towards the end, so I'm trying my best to wrap it up nicely for you guys. To be honest I keep getting carried away while writing and adding more chapters. I don't want the story to seem draggy, but I think after this chapter it's pretty easy to tell how the story will end now.

Btw did you guys see Sunny totally professing her love for Chorong on her radio? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcJPMi9Dj4s My Soonkyu is so gey. It's cute.

Side Note: I think I have a newfound love for Girl's Day's Sojin. That is one fiiine lady, so I had to include a bit of her in this story. I've also began drafting out my next fic which is going to be a ridiculous combo of Jessica, Sojin, and Minkyung from Davichi. It sounds ridiculous, but I have it thought out I promise!...I think. We'll see. This fic holds priority.

Shortest Chapter but longest author comments ever. I'm sorry. Please look forward to the next chapter. I love all of you! Thanks for the comments and welcome to the new subscribers! It means a lot to me! Seriously.