The last part of Remember echoed loudly in the practice room as the 6 members stood in front of the mirror – each with their ending pose for the song. Hayoung soon approached the music player and clicked the stop button as the other girls fanned themselves with their own hands.

“I think it’s enough” Namjoo commented as she sat down with her back leaning on the wall.

“Anybody wants cold drink? I’m gonna buy some at the mini-mart” Eunji asked while her hands were busy searching for her wallet.

“Me!” Hayoung and Namjoo raised their hands without doubt.

Eunji turned her stare to Chorong and Bomi, asking for a reply.

“No thanks. I’ve bought some from the dorm” Chorong answered; her breaths were still heavy from the dance practice.

“Not for me either” Bomi lazily replied.

Realizing that it was a good chance, Eunji’s eyes went back to Chorong and stayed there. Chorong stared back at her, trying to grasp the eye signal given by her third eldest fellow member. It was not until Eunji took a quick peek at Bomi that Chorong finally got the message.

“Alright, I’ll get going now. Namjoo, Hayoung-ah, you two are tagging along”

“What? But my legs are still tired!” Namjoo whined while rubbing her legs until Eunji pulled her by hands.

“C’mon, I don’t want to go there by myself. The casheer ahjussi is really creepy” Faking a reason, the vocalist lingered her left arm around Hayoung’s and her right around Namjoo’s.

The room was only filled with the sound of Bomi’s sneakers rubbing against the wall as the owner of the shoes started zoning out.

“You seem to be still in a bad mood” Chorong began first.

“Not really. I am just tired, I guess”

“But… You haven’t really spoken to me since that competition”

“…I know”

The girl with the brownish hair then turned her head facing Bomi. “You know, you look cute somehow when you pout”

Noticing that the girl just wanted to melt the cold war by joking, Bomi just shrugged coldly.

“Hey, I am serious” Chorong held both of the other girl’s cheeks with her palms. “Jealous Bomi could be really cute, right?”

“Stop thaaat” The blonde girl used her both hands to free her cheeks. “Wait, what? Jealous?”

The question was responded by a nod from Chorong.

“Jealous with who?”

“Eunji told me everything” Chorong fixed her position; her head was facing front again. “You know who”

“That…I…”

Bomi was about to continue when Chorong suddenly met her eyes again and made her lost in those same eyes.

“Is it true? That you got jealous?”

Being a quite straight-forward girl she was, Bomi made a decision to pour her feelings out, even though she did not have the courage to say it without avoiding Chorong’s gaze. “It’s because you seem to like her very much. She is a very respectable idol as well as entertainer. I have watched some variety shows that Sunny sunbaenim starred in before, and I know she can be really entertaining and a comfortable person to be around with”

As if waiting for the August-born girl to go on, Chorong purposely said nothing yet.

“And when you were sick that day” Bomi continued. “You seemed like you wanted to listen to her more than you listen to us – your own members. Even I used to be able to persuade you, but now I can’t anymore”

“So you’re saying… that I like Sunny sunbaenim more than I like you and that I obey her more than I obey you?”

“Yes”

“Pabo-yah, come here” Without hesitating, just like it was natural, Chorong brought Bomi to her hug. “I’m sorry if I made you think so, but I never really had that intention”

“Well I know you maybe didn’t, but-“

“No matter how good sunbaenim is, she is not the Bomi who laughs out loud until her eyes are close to disappearing. No matter how comfortable she is, she is not the Bomi who calms me down when I am in deep thoughts. No matter how many times sunbaenim says she likes me… she is just not my Bomi”

The younger girl pulled her head a bit from the embrace.

“Besides that” Chorong let out a small giggle. “She seems to love someone else”

“But she keeps saying that she likes you”

“Yah, you’re not me, so you don’t understand” The older between the two patted Bomi’s head. “If there’s someone among my group members who clearly cares about me more than anybody else, I would surely choose that person. I guess Sunny sunbaenim feels the same”

“So…” Bomi broke the hug apart, but she still kept their arms around Chorong’s back. “Who do you think cares about you more than anybody else?”

“Hmm, who is it?” Chorong grinned. “I don’t know, maybe you can help me figure out”

“It’s me right? It’s me!” Bomi shamelessly claimed.

“I said I don’t know!” Acting fool, Chorong stood up and walked away.

“Yah!” Bomi followed her from behind, acting angry even though she was 99% sure that Chorong agreed with her.

* * *

Taeyeon was sitting lazily with her one leg up, playing her phone games while waiting for their turn to perform. The members had been in and out the waiting room frequently, but she still did not see Sunny. They had wrapped up the rehearsal since a few hours ago, yet the aegyo queen had been missing from her sight since then.

She sighed as she took the phone charger from her bag, but the boredom on her face soon disappeared when she noticed the coloring tools she found inside. She did not realize she had not taken them out of this bag, but she felt lucky because she could lure Sunny by this. That girl said that she would hop in to join whenever she was coloring right?

So, Taeyeon got the book and the watercolor box out, placing them on the room’s white table. She stepped outside, looking at her left and right to spot Sunny, but it turned to zero result. She asked the other 7 girls if they happened to know, but they stated they did not either. It had come to the point where she was in the other groups’ waiting are and she was embarrassed to be around there, but that was the last place she could scan.

There, on the corner of the room, she spotted the girl she had been looking for. Sunny was not alone; she was with that one particular girl Taeyeon had felt envious of.

“Right” She laughed bitterly in her heart. “I forgot that they are here too”

“Sunny-yah” Without waiting any longer, she stepped closer to where they were standing.

“Ah, anyonghaseyo, Taeyeon sunbaenim” Chorong and Bomi bowed right away when they realized the arrival of the well-known Soshi leader.

“N- Ne, anyeong” Taeyeon awkwardly answered them with a simple bow before focusing on Sunny. “Yah, I’ve been looking for you”

“Me? Why?”

“Well, I was about to continue the coloring book so… I was wondering whether you wanted to tag along, since you told me you wanted to”

“Ah” Soonkyu stole a glance at the hoobaes then came back to Taeyeon again. “You just start first. I will join in if we still have time before the performance”

The answer hit Taeyeon hard; disappointment crept in her heart somehow. “Okay then” She briefly muttered before disappearing from the spot.

She came back to the waiting room and abruptly threw the tools right away back into their place. Her fingers and toes turned cold somehow when she remembered the way Sunny smiled to the other girl whose name she even refused to mention.

“What the heck” She commented in her heart. “She was the one who said she wanted to spend time with me, but now she seems like she never said such thing”

“Unnie” Out of nowhere, the maknae Seohyun turned up from behind the door. “We are up next. They told us to call Sunny unnie”

“You just call her, Joohyun-ah” the oldest girl pretended to fix her hair, hiding her hurt expression upon hearing the name.

The concert went quite more messed up than what they had expected. Right then smoke was all around the stage, filling Taeyeon’s nose with sharp scent that nobody could ever stand. responded with rage right afterwards; she kept coughing as her legs forced their ways to the front of the stage.

She thought that was all the bad luck she would get that day until the concert came to an end and the fireworks were starting. It had been a while indeed since the girls performed at such a merry event – those with fireworks at the end – so she was quite shocked when the first explosion was heard out of sudden.

“That shocked me” She dorkily commented to the maknae who was standing next to her. It was then that she realized Sunny’s presence on Seohyun’s right side.

Although she did not understand why she acted so, she pretended like she did not see it – Sunny scrunching her body in fear and closing her ears in terror. She saw Joohyun moved a bit and put her palms on Sunny’s both ears so the girl could feel safer. No one knew how bad she had wanted to cover the petite girl’s ears right then and to protect her and calm her. No one noticed how she took a one-second glance at Soonkyu and felt ashamed of herself for not moving her legs to Sunny’s side and letting the maknae do the job instead.

When they were going backstage after the concert finally ended, Sunny was still holding Seohyun’s arm tightly. Soon after they were in the room, the girls breathed out in relief; some of them even moaned in annoyance.

“I still can’t believe that smoke” Yoona whined soon after she took a seat on the sofa. “It almost killed me but I still had to put on this smile”

“That’s right, that’s right!” Yuri sat beside her and looked obviously pissed off. “It did not smell bad, but when it went through my throat it was like being choked inside”

“Taeyeon unnie kept coughing” Seohyun pulled a chair and sat down too. “Are you okay now, unnie?”

“Huh? Y- Yeah” Still sinking in the thought of scared Sunny, Taeyeon stuttered with her reply. “I am okay now”

“Sunny-yah, you okay?” Sooyoung asked after finishing half of her water bottle.

“Yeah” Sunny, who was sitting the furthest from the rest, muttered weakly. “Thank you, Joohyun-ah. You saved my life”

“Aigoo unnie, it’s nothing big” The maknae smiled shyly.

“At least you did notice that I was scared and did something instead of nothing” Sunny continued.

It was heard by everyone in the room, not excluding Taeyeon. The leader held in her breath, somehow feeling mocked by Soonkyu’s statement just now. Having piled up this anger and disappointment inside for a few hours, Taeyeon spoke up even though she did not understand why.

“Well I was dying of coughing back then and no one helped me too. You are being selfish”

“I did help you” Sunny responded right away, raising her tone. “I led the introduction when you asked me to”

“Then Seohyun helped you too! Nobody is not helping each other!”

“Then why did you say I was being selfish!?”

“Because you-“ Taeyeon stopped in the middle when she recalled herself being ashamed for not doing anything to help the girl – to protect the girl she loved. Guilt, anger, disappointment and confusion were mixed in her mental at that moment.

“Because I what?” Sunny asked impatiently.

“Fine, fine! It was my fault! It was my fault that I did not help you. It was my fault too that I did not speak to you often these days so you had to go to another girlgroup and had a pleasurable chat with one of them!”

“What do you mean by ‘go to another girlgroup and had a pleasurable chat with one of them’!? I always chat with you and the others!”

“Well you kept talking with that Chorong girl earlier!”

“That was because we had a chance to meet up at such a rare event!?  You are the one being selfish here, Kim Taeyeon!”

Taeyeon had run out of words while the other girls could only stay in silence after witnessing their fight. Realizing that this was partly because of her own impatience, the kid leader stood up and vanished from the room without saying a single word more.