╭                                                                 ╮
━━━ " 📂  " ‍..⃗. ༉

𝙍 𝙊 𝙈 𝘼 𝙉 𝘾 𝙄 𝙉 𝙂

! chapter one hundred
& thirty eight ─── ʚĭɞ

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A week passed and Soojin hadn't shown her face at school since, Jugyeong revealing to Miyeon quietly what had happened between them after chasing after her. It almost didn't surprise her what the Kang girl had said to her once friend - almost.

But there was no way for Soojin to return to what she had been to them, and she had decided to take the easier route of just avoiding them, and avoiding school. Nobody had any contact with her, nobody knew what she was doing - they just knew she hadn't attended Saebom High for an entire school week.

Miyeon found solace in the weekends, a break from the mounting pressure placed on the students of her year to decide on what their futures would be. Some, like Jugyeong, were already enrolled in makeup classes, others were studying meticulous for college exams already. And the rare few, like Miyeon, had no idea what they wanted to do.

She had held goals for herself in her heart, but after quiting life as a trainee those goals had wilted. The only way to bring them back to their full potential was for her to become a trainee again, but she wasn't convinced.

Seojun's video had gained a lot of attention online, and after her text conversation with Im Heekyung about it, Miyeon had heard from her a couple more times, but she wasn't sure on what Heekyung was planning.

And so, she was spending Saturday evening in her apartment, music playing faintly in the background and a pen scratching across the page of a very familar notebook.

"I should get going." Beside her, Seojun had discarded his own pen and got to his feet, carefully folded up the sheets of paper he had been writing them and tucking them into his jacket pocket.

"So soon?" Miyeon looked up at him, eyes glinting with the smile on her lips. "It's only early."

"I've made some plans. Believe it or not, but you aren't my only friend - no matter how much time we spend together." The Han boy replied. "But promise me you'll text me if you manage to finish anymore."

"Of course." She stood up herself, placing her notebook carefully down and the pen sitting between the pages to keep it open. "Be careful on that motorbike. It's a death trap."

Seojun only grinned, reaching for one of the two helmets that he had brought inside and placed by the door. "I will be, just for you." His words were laced with sarcasm and the grin on his lips seemed more like a smirk than anything. "Make sure you eat well, I might bring you leftovers tomorrow."

"No.. tomorrow you'll be making me my favourite drink." Miyeon corrected, Seojun's eyes narrowing before realising what she meant. "Strawberry matcha lattes. I'll pay you extra for the milk to be very frothy on top."

"If my boss wasn't so scary you wouldn't be paying anything." The Han boy pulled on his shoes as they stood by the door. "Make sure nothing happens to that helmet, it's here for you so that when you come with me somewhere you have it and I don't have to drag it around with me."

"So you explained." She could only smile, leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek before he walked out into the hallway. Miyeon waved goodbye until he disappeared, returning to her position on the sofa.

She only continued with what she had been doing before, feelings flowing out onto the page, eyes scraping over small conversations between Suho and Seojun about some mystery girl that that latter liked - a mystery no more.

When her voice rang, Miyeon was working on one of the verses that Seyeon had begun, pausing her work for the second time that evening to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Ah - Hwang Miyeon." It was Jugyeong, a smile clear in her tone. "I.. was having dinner with Seojun, and something sort of interesting came up."

"Oh, you're the one he made plans with? He really does have other friends than me." Miyeon sounded midly impressed before she returned to the matters at hand. "But what was so interesting - he didn't do anything creepy, did he?"

"No, not at all. Actually.. he told me that he liked a girl. But he was deciding to move on because he liked someone else even more." Jugyeong said, and Miyeon swore she felt her heart drop all the way down to her stomach.

"He told you that?" She repeated. "Well - start from the beginning, it's quite confusing."

And then Jugyeong told her all about how Seojun had asked her for relationship advice, and told her about the situation with who he liked. About how the first girl had a boyfriend, and whilst he liked her a lot he liked the other girl more.

"He said that he didn't want to be in love with someone who could never feel the same back." Jugyeong mused. "I was wondering.. and this is sort of the whole reason why I decided to call - but are you one of the girls?"

"I can say for sure I'm not the one with a boyfriend." Miyeon replied, knowing full well that the girl on the other end of the phone was her. "But.. it's complicated."

"Complicated?" Jugyeong repeated. That seemed to be everyone's reaction to hearing it, and at this point Miyeon was barely even surprised to get it from someone else.

"Yeah.. he has feelings for this other girl but he's trying to get over her. Makes things complicated." Miyeon shrugged, deciding to put away her things for the night and head towards bed, beginning to get downstairs ready for her to do just that.

"He said it was a secret who the girls were.. but I think it was obvious you were one of them." Jugyeong sounded sure of herself - and as she should have been, she was correct. "I thought you would just maybe want to know that he talked to me about it and I gave him some advice."

"Advice?"

"Yeah... I'm no expert at relationships but I had a couple of ideas. I hope it does work out for you though, it seemed almost inevitable that you would end up together." On Jugyeong's end, she seemed to be pushing open a gate. "I really hope it does get less complicated, but I should go - I need to have an early night for tomorrow."

"Oh of course! You're going to the beach with Suho." Miyeon sounded far more excited for that than anything else that had been said on the call. "You've got to promise to tell me everything, okay?"

Neither girl hung up until at least half an hour later, by which time Miyeon had managed to do everything but fall asleep, and was laid in bed when they finally ended the call.

The morning came quickly, and after following her usual set of ideas for what to do on a Sunday, Miyeon arrived at the café in which Seojun worked, smiling over a the boy sweeping the floor.

"You've caught me at such an unfortunate time." Seojun said as she approached, having stopped by the worker at the counter to order her usual drink and placed her bag down on a nearby table.

"Waiting for your Cinderella moment?" Miyeon eyed the mop, a laugh leaving her lips. "Many apologises, I'm no fairy godmother."

The Han boy only shook his head, returning back to his mopping as Miyeon sat down in the seat by her bag, only a few more sentences spoken before they were interrupted, a heeled boot stopping Seojun from moving the mop any futher.

And who else would it be except Im Heekyung, who looked as if she was on a mission.

"Hello." She began, looking between the two teens, a smile on her face. "Long time no see."

"Yes." Seojun nodded. He had seemed a little more carefree moments before, but his guard moved upwards at this, only a little worried by her presence. "Long time no see." He repeated.

"Hey - why are you talking to me with no honourifics?" Heekyung asked.

"Because that's how you're talking to me." Seojun replied, pulling his mop away. This is always how their interactions went, although this one seemed a little more playful than the usual snapping back and forth.

"Good afternoon Heekyung." Miyeon smiled weakly at the girl, taking another sip of her drink and standing up to stand besides Seojun.

"See, that's how you should be." Heekyung returned the smile as she gestured towards the Hwang girl. "You're Jugyeong's friend, I'm her old sister."

"You're Im Jugyeong's older sister?" Seojun was acting surprised, although Miyeon was half sure that he already did know. Heekyung placed her hands on her hips and nodded, as if Seojun was challenging her. "Ah - so you're the lady who got drunk and threw a fit."

"Throw a fit?" Heekyung asked, blinking several times and arranging a smile on her face. "You saw me do that?"

"What brings you here?" Miyeon decided to pull the conversation away from Seojun and Heekyung's meeting on what seemed to be a very eventful night.

"You're a star Seojun." Heekyung walked alongside them as Seojun began to mop. Then, Miyeon knew her exact reasons behind the eldest Im girl's appearance. It was about the video.

"What are you talking about?" Seojun asked, meeting Miyeon's eyes with a flicker of worry.

"You haven't seen it?" Heekyung sounded incredibly shocked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone. "Don't you know that you're all over the internet including Newstagram? Here - take a look."

The three of them watched the video together, and it wasn't too obvious that Miyeon had been thhe one taking it - you could hear Suho and her in thee background at times, but that was it.

"Oh.." Seojun began. "What about it?"

"What do you mean? Are you... neither of you still not interested in becoming a singer?" Heekyung snapped her phone shut and the music stopped. "You're going to keep working here part-time and.." She trailed off, waiting for Miyeon's input.

"Oh.. I don't have a job." The Hwang girl quietly said, Heekyung nodding before turning back to Seojun.

"You're going to keep working here part-time?" She repeated. "If you want to - and Miyeon this does include you although I'm not sure why - if you want to become a café owner, then I'll support your dream. But I heard that you both wanted to become singers."

"Do you really think we would sign a contract with that agency again?" Seojun asked, any hint of a smile wiped from his face.

"After what happened with Seyeon.. we couldn't." Miyeon added. "We couldn't sign a contract with that agency."

"As you both already know, all the executives got replaced." Heekyung began her case. "Move Entertainment has changed. We're not how we used to be."

"Why are you so desperate to convince us?" Seojun said, eyes widening as he saw Heekyung reach out and take the wooden handle of his mop.

"Because I got a hunch." She pulled the mop towards her and Seojun immediately leaned forward. "I saw videos of you both of trainees when I was looking for Leo, and my sister's talked about your karoke skills Miyeon - I made the link pretty quickly. Why don't you both start singing again?"

Suho had been saying the exact same thing days ago, but now it was more than just one person, it seemed to set in more. They were both really talented and could use those talents - and neither of them had any idea of what they were going to do after school.

The teens' eyes met as they managed to converse their conflict through jagged eye movements, mouthing things to each other as if Heekyung wasn't there.

But then Seojun's phone began to vibrate, taking a look at the contact name and pulling Miyeon closer as he answered it, the Hwang girl taking the hint and standing up on her tiptoes so she could listen to the conversation.

They had been on the egde of making future-altering decisions, to return to their trainee life or not. But this phone call would change everything, and those decisions would have to wait.

❛ AUTHORS NOTE ━━ last three chapters... anymore guesses for what i'm planning for the second book?

spoilers!! there will be five new major characters, and a sixth returns!!