set fire to the rain
we're all just lonely spirits
324 w, pg. qri-centric, qri/seungho
Qri has always, always been the stable one.
She wipes away Eunjung's tears carefully, her thumb pressed against the younger girl's cheek with sincerity. It's almost like she can feel her heart tingling through her bare flesh, the sound of Eunjung's worn out beat.
"Thanks for letting me talk to you," She says afterwards.
Even though Eunjung barely gets enough time to sleep, she seems to have a lot of time to cry.
Qri shakes her head slowly, giving her a reassuring squeeze with her hand.
"You know you can always talk to me," Is her standard reply, but she means it.
It's true - people can always talk to her. She always finds herself listening.
"Sometimes, it feels like I've known you forever, you just make it so easy to open up," Hyomin had admitted shamelessly once.
Qri just shrugged, because being open was not her thing. She liked being closed off most of the time, with the troubles that didn't really trouble her. She has always been the stable one, the flowered wallpaper that never seemed to rip - it was almost like she was infinite sometimes, but never enough to reach as far as everyone else in the group did.
Eunjung's inhale snaps her out of her thought, the cracking in air bringing her back to reality.
"You going to be okay?" Qri asks.
"Yeah. But, you know - we all go to you for help, for advice," She pauses, "Who do you go to?"
Qri offers this small, little smile, "I think I'm okay by myself."
( That night, when everyone else is sound asleep, she scrolls through the names in her phone.
"I'm okay by myself," She whispers to no one before stopping on his name, her eyes closing. After she presses the green, it rings twice.
"Hello?" Comes the voice from the other line.
She gulps, "Hey, Seungho? Are you busy?" )
text me, miss me, just tell me
389 w, pg. jooyeon/g.o
There are just these random days when she misses him and feels like texting him, but doesn't.
These random days turn into these random, long periods of time, and it just gets weird after that.
"What is there to miss?" Lizzy asks, her tone innocent, because she's actually curious.
"I mean - Do you miss his friendship? Do you miss .. well, I don't know. It's not like you guys are dating or anything. Right?"
Jooyeon blinks a few times, "Right, I guess you have a point. I don't know, I just kind of miss him."
The busan girl grins, resting her chin in her hand. "Unnie! Do you like him?"
She scoffs, "No, of course not."
"Well, why not? He's attractive, is a good singer, is a good dancer, has biceps - "
"Maybe you should date him!" Jooyeon retorts, eyebrows raising.
Lizzy lets out a fit of giggles before shaking her head, "You're getting defensive. It's okay, I won't tell!" The ball of energy places one finger over her lips, "It will be our secret."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, go away!" She teases before kicking her with her foot and looking back down at her phone.
Lizzy departs after yelling something about texting him - which is what she has wanted to do, but now if it gets awkward Jooyeon can say Lizzy forced her to.
Either way, she still doesn't.
When they're promoting wonder boy and Jooyeon actually has lines to worry about, she's singing to herself in some dressing room backstage. Her other members don't really have to worry as much as she does. Soon, the singing turns into humming which turns into just talking.
"What are you doing?" Someone asks then.
When Jooyeon looks over she sees Byunghee, clad in sweat and tight pants, and she laughs nervously.
"Practicing, did you just finish?"
"Yeah, I can't believe you weren't watching me," He says, pausing for a moment, "And haven't been texting me."
"Maybe you should text me," She challenges with a strong glare before he chuckles.
"Maybe. But hey, you look amazing, Jooyeon," And it sounds like, I've really wanted to see you, but it isn't close enough.
A small, unsettling feeling rests in the pit of her stomach.
Jooyeon can't help but wonder if he's missed her as much as she's missed him.
we all start somewhere
423 w, pg. hyoyeon/donghae
"I hate mosquitoes," Hyoyeon says, slapping at her arm. There really isn't anything there though and Donghae vaguely feels like she is just being paranoid. He doesn't say anything about it though, he's too busy looking around.
"Why did you bring me here?" He asks suddenly then, his tone serious.
In a sense, Hyoyeon can kind of tell he is pissed that she brought him here, but she refuses to show any shame in her decision.
"This, my dear friend," A pause, "Is an exercise in getting over her."
He sighs, resting his head on her shoulder. Hyoyeon feels like she is sinking into the bench then, held down by the fluttering in her stomach. But soon, butterfly wings turn into steel shards of an anchor and the pit of her stomach is something of a void waiting to be filled.
Not by him though, at least, not yet.
"I am over her," He says slowly, as if the pronunciation will convince her. It does for a second, but Hyoyeon is hardly known to be gullible.
"If you were over her, you wouldn't complain or be bothered to why I brought you here," She replies.
"You brought me to the park in which Jessica and I had our first date - of course it bothers me. You did it just to spite me."
"Wrong. I did it because this is a park, a park in which there are a lot of memories, not just yours. I've seen couples here before, and they have memories too," She stops. "Donghae, you can't be afraid of a place, it's not manly."
"I'm a very manly man."
"Exactly, so - I don't know. We'll just sit here, we will sit here until you don't feel the way you feel, until I don't feel the way I feel."
He blinks, sitting up then, looking at her, "What? And how exactly do you feel?"
Hyoyeon feels like sinking again, but she musters up the strength to rise up. "I feel like dead weight, Donghae. Your dead weight - I need you. I need you to be happy, okay?" Her eyes flicker.
"You can make new memories at this park," Hyoyeon says quietly. She looks at the rusted swings, the hollow echo of them rocking back and forth, the tattered seesaw, the peeling slide - and he breathes.
"We can make new memories at this park," Donghae says and just closes his eyes again. She does the same and sometime later, he just places his hand on hers.
That's one.
it's the unexpected signals that lead you
252 w, pg. seohyun/onew/yonghwa
Seohyun doesn't remember the last time she laughed with anyone who wasn't him.
But this isn't him, this is Jinki, or Onew, and for a minute she feels like Joohyun again. Seohyun doesn't remember the last time she felt like that, and then she realizes that was also with him. So, it makes sense for her to draw the logical conclusion that she only laughs, laughs like this, when she is Joohyun.
She's wiping her tears now, her mouth still half open from laughing, and suddenly her mouth is closed again because there are another set of lips on top of them. She feels breathless.
"Woah, I - I am so sorry," Jinki stutters out, eyes wide when he pulls away.
Her eyes are wide too, but not as nearly as wide as his.
"It's .. not okay," Comes her honesty and denial.
She is Seohyun: chaste, reasonable, Seohyun.
He is not Yonghwa, the person she expected to lose her first kiss too - but at the same time, she feels okay.
"Joohyun - Seohyun, ah - I am so sorry," He reiterates with his cheeks flushing red and his head hanging down in shame.
"No, really," Seohyun says with an exhale, looking at the ceiling then.
"I don't want to say it is okay, but, it kind of is," She mumbles to herself quietly before she stands up.
"Anyways, I should go," And without another word, she leaves.
Maybe, just maybe, this is her heart giving a signal to move on.