in this moment now (capture it, remember it)

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/35806918.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/F
Fandom: | Cosmic Girls | WJSN
Relationship: Kim Hyunjung | Seola/Kim Jiyeon | Bona
Character: Kim Hyunjung | Seola, Kim Jiyeon | Bona
Additional Tags: fansite au, Mutual Pining, Let Hyunjung Say Fuck, the himbos of wjsn
as fansites, im sorry for removing 3/4 of wjtb from the group, hyunjung
gets catfished: the fic
Stats: Published: 2021-12-19 Chapters: 1/2 Words: 15276

in this moment now (capture it, remember it)

by qaisal

Summary

Hyunjung blinks. Beside her, Sojung’s fingers close around her elbow in a deathlike grip.
“She’s not looking at me…right?”

“Um,” Sojung says. “I think she is.”

“There’s no way she’s looking at me.” Hyunjung twists to see who’s behind her—it’s two
loud, excitable fans, looking the other way and brandishing signs that read Yoo Yeonjung.
Hesitantly, she turns back around.

Bona is still smiling at her.

Or, Jiyeon is an idol and Hyunjung is her fansite.

Notes

for my fellow psych ward resident t for brainrotting with me and threatening me with jiyeon
twt bans and probably halving the amount of time it took to write this

& for lettie (ao3), j., and amy for getting me into wjsn and causing my endless spiral. i wish
u all a very rot

& last but not least for andy just bc she's my ride-or-die ♡

See the end of the work for more notes

It’s a Saturday morning in the middle of July. The blistering heat sticks stubbornly to Hyunjung’s
skin as she steps off the bus, pinking her cheeks and beading her hairline with sweat.

It’s a Saturday morning in the middle of July, and all Hyunjung wants to do is curl up in bed with
the air-conditioning on full blast. Instead, she’s being dragged by the arm by Chu Sojung to god
knows where.

“I want to go home,” she says.

“Why,” Sojung whines. “You said you’d come!”

“I didn’t,” Hyunjung says loftily. “You said it’d be a waste of a ticket if I didn’t. I don’t remember
saying anything after that.”

“It would be a waste,” Sojung says. “We have front row tickets—”

“Your problem,” Hyunjung says. “Yours and Juyeon’s. It’s not my fault she didn’t realise she had
an interview.”

“—to their first fanmeet,” Sojung continues, as if she hadn’t said anything. “Do you know how
critical it is that Soobin and Dawon’s most popular fansites are at their first fanmeet?”

“I don’t know who those people are,” Hyunjung says, just to rile Sojung up even more.
(Unfortunately, she does know who they are—Sojung hasn’t shut up about Soobin and her eye-
smile since this group’s debut a year and a half ago, and if Hyunjung has to hear Juyeon gush one
more time about how Dawon has a voice that could put the angels to shame and legs that go on
forever, she might just throw up.)

“Unnie,” Sojung says indignantly, “I hope you can at least recognise Dawon after the hundreds of
pictures we showed you. You have to take pictures for Juyeon’s fansite, remember?”

“How could I forget,” Hyunjung mutters.

The weight of Juyeon’s DSLR is making her shoulder ache terribly. She heaves her bag more
securely on her shoulders, sighing as the straps bite into her skin. If she makes it out of this fanmeet
alive, she’ll make Juyeon carry her bag for a week as payback.

Sojung stops before a line of skinny metal barricades that trail the path to the venue’s front doors
and finally releases her grip on her arm. Hyunjung rubs her sore wrist gingerly, looking around.
There are fans already scattered on either side of the barricade, some of them fansites like Sojung,
fiddling with the settings on their cameras, the rest of them draped over the barricades, waiting for
their idols to make an appearance.

Jesus. She’d forgotten how much time and energy went into these things.

She turns to Sojung warily. “When does the event start?”

Sojung at least has the decency to look sheepish. “At six. They’ll come earlier than that, though.
But you know that, right? You used to be a fansite m—”

Hyunjung tunes her out and lets her forehead fall onto the barricade with a thunk. Great.
It’s two in the afternoon. Hyunjung has just barely managed to keep herself entertained by taking
horribly zoomed in pictures of Sojung’s face.

“Ha ha,” Sojung grumbles as Hyunjung aims Juyeon’s monster of a lens right at her nose. “You’re
wasting valuable photo space, unnie.”

“Juyeon said she cleared her SD card yesterday.” Hyunjung pretends to squint in concentration,
zooming in on one of Sojung’s nostrils. “And it’s the least you two could let me do after dragging
me here and wasting a perfectly good Saturday.”

Sojung makes a face at her. Hyunjung frames her puffed up cheeks in the viewfinder and clicks the
shutter.

“Wait,” Sojung says suddenly, grabbing her arm, pointing to the large white van pulling up by the
side of the road. Hyunjung ignores her, capturing yet another closeup of Sojung’s nose. “I think it’s
them—”

Hyunjung winces, one hand over her ears as the fans around her begin to chatter, high-pitched and
animated. On her left, Sojung starts hitting her shoulder frantically.

“Ow,” she complains. “Chu Sojung, I swear to god—”

Someone that looks uncannily like the dozens of pictures of Soobin that Hyunjung was made to
look at walks by on the other side of the barricade, eyes curving as she smiles at the waiting fans,
soft brown hair golden in the sun.

Sojung is no longer listening to her. Hyunjung rolls her eyes.

A member of the group she doesn’t recognise walks past, followed by someone who is
unmistakably Dawon. Dutifully, albeit a little grudgingly, Hyunjung presses Juyeon’s camera to
her eye and snaps the first photos of the day that aren’t unflattering angles of Sojung’s face.

Fine. Dawon is pretty, she concedes. And her legs do look like they go on forever. She can see why
Juyeon fawns over her so much. (Not that she’d tell her.)

Beside her, the rapid-fire clicking of Sojung’s shutter stops as Soobin walks past them and enters
the building, followed by her disappointed groan. Hyunjung ignores her, snapping one last photo of
Dawon smiling bashfully at the crowd, hand shielding her eyes from the sun.

Dawon passes them as well, and Hyunjung lowers the camera from her eye, satisfied.

Juyeon is going to carry her bag for a month.

Two more members of the group she doesn’t recognise walk past, arms linked, one of them waving
blithely at the crowd. Sojung tells her their names are Luda and Yeoreum. Hyunjung tells her she
doesn’t care.

She idly flicks through some of the pictures she’d taken as another member walks past, deleting
some of the unsatisfactory ones, and looks back up just in time to catch the last member of the
group stepping down from the van.

The idol’s jet-black hair spills like liquid midnight down her shoulders, a startling contrast to the
rest of her group, dyed in various shades of warm brown and sunny blonde. Hyunjung continues to
look, curious, as she tips her head back, delicate features pulling into a light frown amidst the sun’s
harsh glare.

Her fingers still, hovering over the buttons of Juyeon’s camera. She knows she’s staring, but for
some reason it’s difficult to tear her eyes away.

“Someone catch your eye?” Sojung’s voice is right next to her ear. Hyunjung jumps, and whirls
around to see her smirking.

“No,” she says, a little too loudly.

“Really? Looked like you were real focused on something.”

“I was only looking in that direction because the sun’s in my face otherwise,” Hyunjung says
obstinately.

“Suuuure,” Sojung drawls. “That’s Bona, by the way.”

“I don’t care.”

Not far from them, Bona continues to make her way to the entrance, nearing their position among
the throngs of fans. Her lips, coral red and stark against her fair skin, are pursed, one hand
shielding her face from the sun, pretty eyes lost in thought. Unlike the exuberant cheer exhibited
by the rest of the members, her face remains impassive.

“Pretty, huh?” Sojung wiggles her eyebrows, her face once again popping up in Hyunjung’s
peripheral. Hyunjung automatically pushes her away. “That’s their leader.”

“I don’t care,” Hyunjung says again.

“Has someone found her bias?” Sojung continues gleefully. “Just wait until I tell Juyeon you ended
up liking one of them—”

“I don’t like her,” Hyunjung says exasperatedly. “She’s not even my type. I like warm people, not
ice princesses like that.”

“Okay, okay.” Sojung pouts, then adds, “She really isn’t, though. You should get to know her
better.”

Hyunjung chooses to ignore that, turning her back purposefully on Sojung and effectively ending
the conversation. She faces the front again—

—and meets Bona’s eyes.

It lasts for just a fraction of a second before Bona looks away, but Hyunjung freezes nonetheless.
She grabs Sojung’s arm as Bona continues past them and up the steps into the building.

“Do you think she heard us?”

Sojung raises her eyebrows. “I thought you didn’t care.”

“This is different,” Hyunjung hisses, her ears hot with embarrassment.

“I don’t know. Maybe. Probably not?”

“Chu Sojung.”
“You were speaking pretty loudly,” Sojung admits. “You should’ve seen the death glares some of
the fans gave you.”

Hyunjung slaps a palm to her forehead, then winces at the resultant sting. “Great.”

Sojung eyes her. “She’s gotten a lot of that since debut, you know. People calling her things like
cold and stuck-up and princess and whatnot. She really isn’t like that.”

Now Hyunjung feels even worse. “Thanks.”

Sojung grimaces, patting her shoulder. “I’m sure it’s fine,” she says, unconvincingly. “She
probably didn’t hear.”

The group, at the very least, does have good music.

Hyunjung thinks she might appreciate it even more if she were listening to said music from the
comfort and quiet of her home, rather than in a crowded auditorium going simultaneously deaf and
blind from the pounding bass and blinding strobe lights. Her finger mechanically clicks the shutter,
capturing Dawon as she belts out another high note, stage lights throwing her well-defined jawline
into sharp relief.

Thankfully, it hasn’t been hard to get good photos—they’re in the front row, after all, with nothing
to obstruct their view. As far as fansite work for fan meetings goes, this has been a relatively
smooth experience.

As if determined to prove her wrong, beside her, Sojung fumbles with her bag, then lets out a very
undignified squawk as its contents go tumbling to the floor. Hyunjung shakes her head in
resignation, not even bothering to move her eye from the viewfinder.

“Unnie, hold this.” Sojung shoves her monstrous camera into her hands.

“What—” Hyunjung nearly drops Juyeon’s camera, the thick strap tugging painfully at her neck.

Sojung doesn’t respond, dropping to the floor and attempting to haphazardly gather her things into
her hands. Hyunjung sighs, balancing both cameras in either hand.

“If I miss a legendary shot or drop Juyeon’s camera, I’ll tell her to take it up with you,” she says
loudly, trying to make herself heard over the music.

It’s not that big of a deal—if she lets go of Juyeon’s camera, it’ll just hang off the strap around her
neck. But Hyunjung figures she’s been grumbling all day, so a little more can’t hurt. She can’t do
the same with Sojung’s, unfortunately, because in classic Sojung fashion, she hasn’t put a strap on
her camera. God knows why.

She settles for letting Juyeon’s camera hang off her neck while she takes experimental shots using
Sojung’s, curious about what settings she’s using. The photos come out well despite the garish
lighting; for all of Sojung’s clumsiness and airheadedness, she’s always been a damn good
photographer.

Hyunjung snaps a closeup of Soobin smoothing her bangs back from her forehead and says
pointedly to the figure still crouched on the floor, “You’re welcome.”

Sojung doesn’t hear her.

With nothing else to do, Hyunjung settles for watching the performances for a while instead. Her
gaze strays back to Bona, her raven hair easily identifiable amidst the other six members of her
group. What happened earlier flashes unbidden in her mind, and she cringes, letting her forehead
knock against the metal frame of Sojung’s camera.

Please, please let her not have heard.

The members are moving around the stage freely now, singing one of the more mellow songs in
their discography. Something like Hug You, if Hyunjung had heard correctly. Not that she cares, of
course.

It is a nice song, though.

One of the members comes up to Bona and pats her butt fondly, her flaming red hair eye-catching
under the bright lights. Unfortunately, Hyunjung now knows all the members’ names thanks to
their self-introductions at the beginning of the fanmeet, and recognises her to be Yeonjung, one of
their main vocals, the youngest in the group.

She watches as Bona slaps Yeonjung’s butt in turn, throwing her head back and laughing. Another
member comes up beside them—Dayoung, she thinks—and takes Bona’s face into her hands,
squishing her cheeks hard enough that Bona starts kicking her calf repeatedly to get her to let go.

The open, affectionate smile on the idol’s face as she interacts with the two youngest members of
her group is nothing like the impassive expression she’d worn earlier. Yeonjung pats her butt
again, and Bona pushes her, her eyes curving as she smiles. Hyunjung blinks, breath catching in the
back of her throat.

Automatically, her finger presses down on the shutter of Sojung’s camera.

“Mm, yeah,” a voice says right into her ear. Hyunjung nearly shrieks, twisting around and pressing
one hand to her hammering heart. Sojung is grinning at her. “She looks real cold now.”

Hyunjung feigns obliviousness. “Who?”

Sojung gives her a look, jerking her chin at the screen of her camera. “The member you just took a
picture of?”

Hyunjung follows her gaze. There, plain as day on the screen of Sojung’s camera, is Bona’s radiant
smile.

She’s never going to live this down.

“Shut up,” she says, over Sojung’s guffaw. “I was just taking pictures for your stupid fansite.”

“I run a Soobin fansite, unnie.”

Hyunjung tries for obliviousness again. “I don’t know who that is.”

“Whatever you say,” Sojung singsongs.

Onstage, Bona finally manages to evade Dayoung’s grabby hands, running all the way to the other
side of the stage—the side Hyunjung and Sojung are sitting at. Sojung starts nudging her side, her
grin absolutely insufferable.

“Your bias—”

“She is not my bias!” Hyunjung hisses, then squeaks as one of Sojung’s fingers accidentally digs
into her ribs. “I’m going to drop your camera—stop—”

The effort of balancing two hefty cameras and having to fend off Sojung is causing her to flail in a
very undignified manner. Sojung grabs her sleeve to steady her, but ends up tripping and stumbling
into her instead, nearly making her topple over.

“Chu Sojung, if something happens to Juyeon’s camera, you’re paying,” Hyunjung threatens,
righting herself and stepping decisively away from Sojung before she can wreak any more havoc.

She turns back towards the stage, and nearly loses her balance again.

Bona is kneeling by the edge of the stage, a bottle of water raised to her lips. And she’s looking
right at them.

As Hyunjung stares at her, frozen, Bona pauses, lowering the bottle in her hands. They’re so close
to the stage Hyunjung can see the sweat gleaming faintly off her brow, the movement of her eyes
as they meet Hyunjung’s. For a moment, she thinks she sees a flicker of uncertainty in the idol’s
expression.

Then, Bona tilts her head and smiles.

Hyunjung blinks. Beside her, Sojung’s fingers close around her elbow in a deathlike grip. “She’s
not looking at me…right?”

“Um,” Sojung says. “I think she is.”

“There’s no way she’s looking at me.” Hyunjung twists to see who’s behind her—it’s two loud,
excitable fans, looking the other way and brandishing signs that read Yoo Yeonjung. Hesitantly,
she turns back around.

Bona is still smiling at her.

Sojung starts swatting her arm. “She is she is hurry up and take the photo she isn’t going to smile
forever—”

“Aren’t you a Soobin fansite?”

“I don’t care! That’s a legendary photo, she’s right there! Take it take it take it—” Sojung is yelling
in her ear now, straining to be heard above the pounding music.

The metal frame of Sojung’s camera clunks clumsily against Hyunjung’s cheekbone as she
hurriedly presses the viewfinder to her eye, muttering god, fine, you’re so noisy, Chu Sojung. She
holds down the button, eyes riveted on Bona’s now-blinding smile through the viewfinder.

If there’s one thing Hyunjung prides herself in, it’s that she doesn’t lose her composure when idols
happen to look at her camera, as so many fans tend to do. Even during her days as an SNSD fansite
years ago, she’d always had the steadiest hands and some of the best eye-contact photos.

She really is pretty, Hyunjung thinks absently.

She chalks it up to the exertion from fansite work and the nagging headache the glaring spotlights
have given her.

Hyunjung slumps against the bench they’re sitting on, utterly exhausted, watching as Sojung flicks
through the photos on their cameras, snapping previews on her phone for her and Juyeon to post on
their Twitter accounts.

“Those seats were so worth it,” Sojung crows. “Not a single head in my fancam.”

“Mm,” says Hyunjung, indifferent.

Sojung browses through more of the photos Hyunjung had taken of Dawon. “These are really,
really good. You still take amazing photos, unnie.”

“Mm.”

“You should join us next time. Start a fansite of your own.” Sojung looks at her hopefully.

“Mm?” Hyunjung frowns. “No.”

“C’mon, your old camera’s just collecting dust at home at this point,” Sojung whines. She switches
to her camera next, looking through the photos of Soobin with a critical eye, deleting the ones she
doesn’t deem satisfactory. “Imagine if we had someone like you taking pictures for WJSN!”

“You and Juyeon are enough.” Hyunjung yawns, eyes fluttering shut. Surely Sojung won’t mind if
she takes a little nap, right here on this bench, outside the fan meeting venue.

“Plus,” Sojung continues, ignoring her and wiggling her eyebrows, “you have a bias already.”

Her eyes fly open. “I do not.”

Sojung positively cackles. Hyunjung is dismayed to see she’s reached the section of her camera
gallery that consists of photos of Bona. That she’d taken. Determinedly, she shuts her eyes again,
trying to tune Sojung out.

“Huh. So maybe she didn’t hear you.”

Hyunjung cracks open one eye. Sojung is studying the photo she’d taken of Bona smiling at her,
warm and genuine.

“I guess,” she mutters. For all her crankiness today, she’s grateful the leader of this newly debuted
group at least hadn’t been an unintended casualty.

“What do we do with these? Neither of us is a Bona fansite,” Sojung muses.

“Send it to Juyeon, it’s on her camera,” Hyunjung suggests, yawning again. She wants to go home.
“One Bona post in the middle of her Dawon feed won’t do any harm.”

“Hmm.” Sojung eyes her thoughtfully. Unease creeps into the pit of her stomach. When Sojung
gets that look on her face, nothing good has ever followed. “Yeah. I guess it wouldn’t.”
At midnight, when Hyunjung is buried comfortably under her covers, eyelids starting to lose the
battle against fatigue, her phone pings with a notification.

chu sojung
unnie

hyunjung
I’m sleeping

chu sojung
:/
i um
did something

hyunjung
I don’t want to know

chu sojung
:/
https://twitter.com/bonasrose/status/…
don’t hate me hehehe

hyunjung
…………what is that.

chu sojung
click on it

hyunjung
I really don’t want to
I’m going back to sleep. goodnight.

Hyunjung drops her phone onto her nightstand, burrows even further into her blankets, shuts her
eyes spitefully, and tries to sleep.

She isn’t very successful.

Eventually, she heaves a beleaguered sigh and picks up her phone again.

chu sojung
UNNIIEEEEEEEE

geundeokie
unnie you don’t need to listen to sojung unnie okay
it would be nice if you could come with us next time tho... :D
Oh, god. With no small amount of dread, Hyunjung clicks on the link Sojung sent. She doesn’t
know what she was expecting—honestly, she suspected it’d be something like this—but it makes
her groan and bury her face in her pillow all the same.

It’s a tweet with the pictures she took of Bona smiling at her.

She clicks on the account. Bona profile picture. Account joined this month. There’s only one tweet
—the one Sojung sent her.

hyunjung
what is this.
what’s with the @.

chu sojung
do you like it :)
i spent at least 10 min thinking about it
please use it YOU’RE ALREADY GAINING SO MANY FOLLOWERS
THE TWEET IS GOING VIRAL

hyunjung
you mean *you’re* already gaining so many followers
this is your account
I had nothing to do with this

chu sojung
yeah you just took the photos thats all
of her
smiling at you :’)

hyunjung
goodnight.

Hyunjung looks at the tweet one last time, swiping between the two photos of Bona that Sojung
had uploaded. In the first, the idol’s smile is soft, hesitant—when she’d first smiled at Hyunjung
and Hyunjung had trouble believing it was her she was smiling at. In the second photo, Bona
beams at her through her phone screen, raven hair haloed by the spotlights, eyes crinkling at the
corners with the brilliance of her smile.

They are, admittedly, very good photos. She can see why they’re going viral. Objectively, of
course.

She places her phone back on her nightstand and falls asleep to the sound of Hug You playing
unwarranted in her head.
When she wakes up the morning after, the damn song is still stuck in her head.

Very grudgingly, she adds it to her playlist.

Her playlist starts autoplaying more songs from the group, spurred on by the one song she’d added
to it. (It’s Hug U, not Hug You, as she’d learned.)

She adds them to her playlist as well. It’s just good music, she reasons with herself. She can
appreciate good music. Objectively speaking.

A week later, when she ends up on Youtube, searching for a live performance of Save Me, Save
You, she tells herself the same thing. She can appreciate a good performance. Youtube autoplay
takes her to another. Before she knows it, she’s watched five more stages of the same song.

She closes Youtube upon the realisation, mildly horrified.

Over the next few weeks, she lets Juyeon and Sojung cajole her into joining them for two of the
group’s guerilla concerts and one of their university performances. She makes a show of grumbling
each time, but she finds she doesn’t mind all that much. Half their songs are in her playlist now,
anyway, and it would be a chance to see those songs performed live.

There are some days she thinks Juyeon might be catching on to her—right before another event,
Juyeon places both hands on her shoulders one day and tells her, very seriously, “Unnie, you don’t
need to come with us if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay, I’ll come,” Hyunjung says, a little too quickly, and Juyeon cocks her head at her.

She tries too late to school her expression into something neutral.

“Okay,” Juyeon says easily. There’s a smile in her voice Hyunjung doesn’t like the sound of.

It doesn’t help that Sojung won’t stop nudging her arm and grinning intolerably whenever Bona
takes centre stage during performances. And it certainly, absolutely does not help that Hyunjung’s
own eyes won’t stop straying to the idol. She’s good-looking—obviously. But there’s also
something about her that’s frustratingly magnetic—her powerful, elegant dancing, her airy voice,
and the look in her eyes when she performs; a maddening mix of sultry and coy that has Hyunjung
swallowing uneasily.

But she won’t give Sojung the satisfaction.

She might start searching for Bona fancams when she’s safely back in the sanctuary of her own
room, but no one has to know.

Despite all her best efforts, it’s Sojung who finds out first.

Hyunjung had passed her phone to her to show her some video or other, and didn’t think much of it
until Sojung chokes noisily on her drink, hand flying to her chest.

“Why,” she sputters as Juyeon thumps her heavily on her back, “have you searched for a different
Bona fancam thirty times over the past few days?”

Fuck.

“You what?” says Juyeon, while Hyunjung lunges unsuccessfully for her phone. Juyeon snatches it
from Sojung, one long arm holding it just out of her reach while she scrolls through Hyunjung’s
search history.

In between her frantic coughing and hacking, Sojung starts to cackle. “I—told you—she was Bona-
biased—”

“Shut up,” Hyunjung says, cheeks crimson.

“Not that I didn’t see this coming,” Juyeon says as she continues to scroll, “but you have it kinda
bad, unnie.”

“I do not,” she says obstinately. “Watching Bona fancams doesn’t mean I like her.”

Neither Sojung nor Juyeon bothers to dignify that with an answer.

Her friends drag her to more events. Hyunjung can’t even fake reluctance anymore. Sojung even
makes her bring her old camera, from her days of being a Taeyeon fansite years ago.

“I’m not taking pictures for your stupid fansite,” Hyunjung tells her.

“It’s your fansite,” Sojung corrects, and wags a finger at her when she opens her mouth to protest.
“I’m not saying you need to. I’m just saying bring your DSLR along. If you happen to see
something nice you want to take a picture of, then, well…”

“That’s what phones are for,” Hyunjung snipes back, “to take pictures.”

(She does, however, furtively stuff her camera into her backpack when Sojung isn’t looking.)

It’s not that Sojung’s right, or anything. It’s just that the view of the stage happens to be
particularly nice from where they’re standing. And if Bona happens to be centre stage when
Hyunjung presses her eye to the viewfinder, then, well, it’s nothing more than just a coincidence.

She feels her camera wobble a little as she tries to focus on the idol’s face.

“Sojung,” she gripes.

“It’s your fansite name,” Sojung says brightly. “You know how these things work. She might see it
and look at your camera.”
It’s a small but obnoxiously bright sign that reads “Bona’s rose”, adorned with a little crimson rose
at the end.

Hyunjung is not going to be one of those fansites that clamour for their idol’s attention. Her hand
hovers over the mortifying sign, ready to pluck it off her camera. “I don’t care if she does. I can’t
believe you made this.”

“I didn’t—”

“I made it, unnie.” Juyeon grins at her. “It’s good, right?”

Hyunjung’s eye twitches. Her hand falls back to her side. She’ll keep it on, just this once. For
Juyeon. “It’s…good.”

She ignores Sojung snickering behind her.

Later that night, when Hyunjung reluctantly logs into the account Sojung had made for her, she
notices two more tweets have been posted, both with photos she’d taken the night of the fan
meeting attached.

The first thing she does is change the password Sojung had set.

The next thing she does, after some hemming and hawing, is to post the photos she’d taken earlier.
Most of them are taken mid-performance, capturing Bona in various poses, some with her mic
brought to her lips, some in which she’s just dancing, but always with that half-sultry, half-coy gaze
that makes Hyunjung’s eyes linger just a little too long on each photo.

She rolls her eyes at herself and selects four of the best ones, running them through Photoshop to
refine them. Sojung had even made a little logo for her—an intricate little crimson rose—which
she’d used for her earlier postings. Hyunjung texts her a grudging thanks for the watermark, slaps
them on the photos and proceeds to upload them.

They’re good photos, she reasons. She might as well post them; they’d just waste away in her
memory card otherwise.

She ignores the flurry of smiley faces Sojung texts her with after her tweet is successfully posted,
and continues flicking through the rest of her gallery.

There were a few she’d taken in between songs when the members were talking to the crowd, some
of them experimental shots to test her settings, some of them simply because she had nothing else
to do.

She comes across a closeup of Bona scrunching both her eyes against the sun’s glare. The idol is
smiling, nonetheless, and one of her hands is lifted in a cheeky peace sign. Hyunjung squints at the
photo again, and realises Bona is trying to wink.

A disbelieving half-laugh bubbles from her throat. So the idol she’d once thought to be cold and
unapproachable has trouble winking.

It’s a little endearing. Maybe.

She moves to the next photo, and her breath catches in her throat. Bona is looking directly at her.

Well—through her laptop screen, anyway. And she was technically looking at Hyunjung’s camera.
Or, more likely, happening to be looking in that direction. There’s no way she could see
Hyunjung’s face past her monster of a DSLR. Hyunjung exhales, clicking to view the next photo.

Bona is smiling at her, eyes crinkling at the corners, a dimple denting her cheek.

Her camera, Hyunjung corrects herself numbly. She’s smiling at her camera. And it’s because of
the sign Juyeon made.

She stares a little more. Her fingers move before she can stop them. Before she knows it, she’s
posted two more photos: the one of Bona trying (and failing) to wink, and the one of her smiling.

Hyunjung shuts down her laptop before she can cave and post any more.

With each day that passes, and with each successive event Sojung and Juyeon drag her to, she’s
feeling less and less like she can pretend to not like this group and their irritatingly good
discography. And their performances. And their pretty, maddeningly charming leader.

Sojung is never going to let her live this down.

“The last time I brought unnie to something like this, she was complaining the whole time,” Sojung
tells Juyeon, while they hang off the metal barricades lining the sidewalk. “And taking ugly
pictures of me.”

“I think they were some of your best, actually,” Hyunjung says. She pretends to squint into the
viewfinder of her film camera, framing Sojung’s nose in her sights.

“Go closer,” Juyeon urges her. “You have to get the inside of her nose.”

“Excellent idea,” Hyunjung says, and snaps a picturesque closeup of Sojung’s left nostril.

“I’m honoured my nose is a part of your precious film reel,” Sojung sniffs. “I hope it scares you
when you develop it.”

“It’s scaring me now in real life,” Hyunjung tells her. She spins the film advance wheel and snaps
another picture of her friends slouched over the metal barricade while they wait, Sojung’s camera
clutched in her hand, Juyeon’s hanging around her neck. Juyeon slings an arm around Sojung,
posing exaggeratedly, while Sojung pretends to stagger under her weight.

“Wait,” Juyeon says suddenly as something catches her eye, “Is that them?”

“It’s still early.” Hyunjung frowns, but she’s drowned out by the chorus of screams that erupt from
the front of the crowd. She cranes her neck, squinting, while Sojung presses her camera to her eye
and Juyeon fumbles with hers. All she can see past the cluster of bobbing heads is the black van
parked by the side of the road. “It could be another group—”

Soobin walks right by their place in the crowd, stopping her mid-sentence. Beside her, Sojung’s
shutter clicks away furiously. Hyunjung tries to twist around to reach her backpack, wanting to put
her film camera away and get her DSLR out instead, but she can barely even move her arm with
the wave of fans smothering her from behind.

“Juyeon,” she whines. Sweet, reliable, tall Juyeon will help her. “Can you get my camera out—”

“Hmm?” Juyeon murmurs, distracted. It’s then that Hyunjung notices Dawon walking past. She
looks back at Juyeon, only to see her face now glued to her camera. She rolls her eyes. Fucking
fansite masters.

At least Bona hasn’t walked by yet; she still has time. Hyunjung tries to reach for her bag again,
just as another member crosses into their line of sight.

Pretty, aloof eyes. Jet-black hair.

Oh, fuck.

There’s no way she can get her DSLR out in time. Instinctively, she raises her film camera to her
eyes and clicks the shutter. If nothing else, her film reel will at least be graced by its prettiest
subject yet. Much better than the inside of Chu Sojung’s nose.

Sojung tears her gaze away from her camera long enough to frown at her. “Wrong camera, unnie.”

“I know,” Hyunjung hisses, frantically winding the film forward and raising the camera to her eyes
again. In the tiny window of the viewfinder, she sees Bona’s eyes flit about, wandering over the
sizable crowd.

Then, they land on her.

Hyunjung startles so badly she nearly drops her camera, index finger squeezing the shutter in her
attempt to stop it from falling. Flustered at her own clumsiness, she’s caught off guard when
someone’s elbow digs into her ribs, and she loses her balance, stumbling forward. The metal bar of
the barricade jabs painfully into her skin, knocking the wind out of her.

As she winces, she sees Bona’s eyes widen, her hand reaching out.

She’s only dimly aware of Juyeon’s fingers wrapping around her elbow to steady her. Unnie,
careful, oh my god—

Hyunjung doesn’t answer her, frozen, staring up at Bona, just inches away on the other side of the
barricade. The idol pauses, then smiles, eyes curving, and continues to walk forward.

Amidst the din of the excitable crowd, Hyunjung thinks she hears a soft, “Be careful, master-nim.”

“She looked at you. I swear she looked at you!” Sojung won’t stop hitting her shoulder. Hyunjung
grabs her wrist.

“Sojung, everyone was looking at me when I fell.”

Sojung isn’t listening. “I told you the sign worked!”

“The sign is on her other camera, unnie…” Juyeon presses an exasperated palm to her forehead.
While they argue, Hyunjung winds the film in her camera forward, slowly, still a little dazed.

“The point is, Bona was looking at her!” Sojung huffs.

(Hyunjung doesn’t tell them she thinks she might have heard Bona talking to her, too.)

There are times when Hyunjung questions her life choices. Case in point: what is she doing awake
at six on a Sunday morning for a woman who doesn’t even know her name?

She’s alone today; Bona has a solo schedule where she’s due to get on a plane bound for some
remote island or other in the Pacific Ocean. So, naturally, Hyunjung is at the airport as well,
stifling yawns and waiting for the familiar black van to pull up by the entrance. Without Sojung
and Juyeon to keep her awake, she might just fall asleep here, hunched over her camera, among the
other Bona fansite masters waiting for her arrival.

The minutes tick by.

Hyunjung might have dozed off at some point, because she’s jolted out of her drowsiness by the
sudden flurry of activity around her. Disoriented, she stumbles to her feet, clutching her camera,
and tries to get a decent shot past the clump of fans in front of her. She can just barely make out
Bona at the centre of the crowd, snug in a fur-padded coat and rubbing sleep from her eyes, raven
hair flowing loosely past her shoulders.

She looks unfairly adorable, Hyunjung’s sleep-dazed mind thinks distractedly. No one should have
the right to look that cute at six in the morning.

The fans continue to swarm forward, sweeping Hyunjung along in their frenzied current. She steps
onto the escalator, flanked by the crowd. She’s gotten some okay pictures, but if she manages to
make it to the departure gate before Bona does, she might get some better ones. If she’s lucky.

Sleepily, she moves up the escalator, but doesn’t make it very far before she bumps into someone.
“Sorry,” she mumbles, “I wasn’t looking where I was going…”

“That’s okay,” a familiar voice says amusedly, and Hyunjung’s head whips up so fast her neck
cracks.

She’s standing on the same escalator step as Bona.

A strangled sort of panicked squeak sounds in Hyunjung’s ears. (It might have come from her.)

She takes a hasty step down, trying to backtrack, but the crowd of people have closed in behind
her, blocking any means of escape. Hyunjung sees people holding cameras, carry-ons—these are,
very obviously, not the fans she thought she’d followed onto the escalator.

A hand touches her arm lightly, accompanied by a faint giggle. Numbly, Hyunjung turns back
towards her, heart thudding madly against her ribcage.

Bona is laughing at her. “It’s okay, really.” She smiles, and her dimple dents her cheek. “Don’t run
down the escalator, it’s dangerous.”

“Sorry,” Hyunjung stutters, finally managing to find her voice. “I didn’t mean to—I thought I was
—sorry.”

“Are you following me to the jungle?”

“No! Of course not!” Hyunjung waves her hands around in the air frantically, flustered. Does Bona
think she’s a sasaeng?

The idol watches her flounder, eyes twinkling. Then she tilts her head and says, “That’s too bad.”

Hyunjung’s mouth falls open, and she stands there, dumbfounded, as Bona gets off the escalator
and heads towards check-in, her laughter tinkling in her ears.

A few months later, WJSN makes their comeback.

Sojung, Juyeon, and Hyunjung huddle over the teasers together, Juyeon clutching both their arms in
excitement, Sojung staring at the teasers with one hand pressed to her mouth, eyebrows scrunched
together. (Hyunjung thinks she might be crying a little.)

“Unnie, are you okay? Do you like it?” Juyeon pokes her. “You haven’t said anything.”

“I’m fine,” Hyunjung says in a strangled voice. Bona’s hair is pink as strawberry milk. Paired with
the regal-looking riding uniform the whole group is sporting, she looks stunningly ethereal.

Juyeon chortles, turning back to Sojung, who’s already sniffling loudly. “She likes it.”

They attend every music show WJSN perform at, naturally.

The group’s popularity has only grown since Hyunjung attended their first fan meeting all those
weeks ago, and it’s evident in the dense throngs of fans they have to manoeuvre through just to get
decent photos. There are fans of other groups too, of course, and Hyunjung has to endure an
irritating amount of pushing and shoving, but it’s worth it for the pictures she manages to get.

She flicks through them after the performance, exhilarated and satisfied. During the performance,
for a brief, fleeting moment, she thinks Bona had made eye contact with her. It happened so fast
Hyunjung barely had time to register it before the idol switched positions to take centre stage, but
she thought she might’ve seen a spark of recognition in her eyes.

But it was probably just her imagination.

Hyunjung uploads previews of a few choice photos to her Twitter, titles it “today’s strawberry milk
˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა” as has been her habit ever since Bona dyed her hair pink, and rubs at her eyes with the
heel of her hand.

The day’s exhaustion is starting to seep in as the adrenaline drains from her body. Today was the
last of their music show promotions. In a few days, she’ll be attending her very first WJSN
fansign.
She’s trying not to think too much about it. Her nerves are fraying at the edges at the very thought
of getting to talk to the members. To Bona.

Next to her, Juyeon is dozing off on Sojung’s shoulder, mouth wide open, while Sojung looks
through her photos. Hyunjung looks at them, a fondness in her eyes she’d never let them see.

They’re annoying brats, sometimes. But they’re her annoying brats.

She reaches into her backpack for her film camera, wanting to immortalise this moment; her friends
slumped tiredly on a bench outside the Inkigayo building after three weeks of hard work, oversized
cameras in their hands.

Her fingers grasp empty air.

“Sojung, do you have my film camera?” Hyunjung asks, rifling through her backpack a little
anxiously.

Sojung frowns. “No. Why?”

“I can’t find it.”

Juyeon stirs and pushes herself upright, yawning and stretching. “Are you sure? Have you checked
your bag?”

Hyunjung nods mutely, searching her backpack a third time. No camera.

“You took it out just now, right?” Juyeon supplies helpfully. “When we were waiting for them to
arrive? Let’s go back and check.”

They don’t find it. Hyunjung just barely manages to choke down her rising panic.

“Which film camera was it?” Sojung asks, stooped over the ground as if it’ll help her see better.

“The one my mom gave me.” Hyunjung wants to cry.

Sojung sucks in a startled breath and redoubles her efforts, dropping down to crouch on the ground
and search around the metal barricades they’d been leaning against earlier.

Ever since Sojung had gotten her into film photography years ago, Hyunjung had steadily been
amassing a sizable collection of film cameras, the very first of which being her mother’s old film
camera, still fully functional. And, unfortunately, one of the few things Hyunjung had left to
remember her by.

“Don’t worry, unnie,” Juyeon tells her, squeezing her shoulder. “Even if we don’t find it today, we
can ask the people working here or something. Or we can ask for the Lost and Found! We’ll find
it.”

Even she doesn’t sound so certain.

In the days that follow, Hyunjung is so preoccupied with fretting over her missing camera and
berating herself that the fansign nearly slips her mind completely. Thankfully, Sojung and Juyeon
don’t let her forget.

“C’mon, unnie,” Juyeon says, zipping up Hyunjung’s camera bag and putting it into her backpack,
while Sojung prods her repeatedly, getting her out of bed. “Today’s the day, remember?”

“You’re going to talk to Bona,” Sojung reminds her, prodding her harder. Hyunjung pales.

“I’m going to talk to Bona,” she repeats, and suddenly her stomach is knotting itself into anxious
twists for an entirely different reason. Sojung stares at her with some despair.

“Nice work,” Juyeon says.

“It’s better that she has her freakout now rather than later in front of Bona,” Sojung says
defensively.

“What makes you think she won’t still freak out later?”

“I’m right here, you know,” Hyunjung says pointedly. “As if you both won’t go feral yourselves
when you see your biases.”

“I was fine my first fansign,” Sojung protests, and Juyeon snorts.

“She started crying when it was her turn to talk to Soobin.”

Hyunjung is not freaking out. She isn’t.

Her legs are a little shaky as she sits down and her fingers tremble faintly as she lays her album on
the table for signing, but she’s calm. Perfectly calm. It’s a good thing her bias is the last member
she’s speaking to today and the other members have dispelled some of her nervousness, but—she
stares down at her feet, swallowing.

“Hello,” comes a faintly amused voice.

“Hi,” Hyunjung squeaks. Her sneakers suddenly seem very interesting to her.

There’s a pause. Slender fingers reach out, taking her album and flipping it open. “You don’t want
to look at me?” A soft laugh. “Is it because I’m ugly?”

“What? No!” Hyunjung’s head jerks up in alarm, only to see Bona giggling at her, hand pressed to
her mouth.

Oh. She’s joking. Hyunjung’s cheeks redden.

Now that she’s sitting right in front of the idol instead of squinting through a massive zoom lens,
it’s almost too much to take in.

She almost returns her gaze to the floor, but Bona’s smile has warmed into something friendly,
open. Hyunjung relaxes somewhat, her body losing a little of its stiffness.

(Just a little.)

Bona slots her finger before the little post-it Hyunjung had left for her name, turning to the page
Hyunjung had wanted her to sign on. “So, who’s your bias?”

Hyunjung blinks rapidly at her.

All this time she thought Bona had been giving her camera special treatment—she thought Bona
knew Hyunjung was her fansite. She’d even taken care to put that obnoxious sign with her fansite
name Juyeon had made for her on her camera each and every time she’d attended an event.

Or maybe she’d been imagining things this whole time, and Bona doesn’t pay nearly as much
attention to her as she thought. Or hoped.

Bona rests her chin in the palm of her hand, eyeing her amusedly, as if she can sense her internal
strife. “Is it Soobin? Dayoung?”

“No…” Hyunjung mumbles.

“Oh?” Mischief glints in the idol’s pretty eyes. “I thought you said you liked people who look
warm?”

Hyunjung stares at her blankly, wondering if she’d perhaps mistaken her for another fan, before
she remembers.

She drops her face into her hands, mortified. “You heard…”

There’s a light touch on her arm. Hyunjung doesn’t budge. Another soft giggle sounds, and her
hands are tugged gently away from her face.

If she was blushing before, her face is practically on fire now.

“Sorry.” Bona doesn’t sound in the least bit apologetic. Her eyes twinkle with mirth. “It’s okay if
I’m not your type, you know.”

“No, you are!” Hyunjung protests. The words come out a little too loud, and she winces. Bona
looks like she’s trying very hard not to laugh.

“You are,” she insists, a little less loudly. “I was just grumpy that day because my friend dragged
me there and I didn’t want her to know that I, um…”

“That you?” Bona prompts. She’s smiling. Hyunjung frowns at her.

“You’re enjoying this.”

Bona shrugs. “Maybe. So? That you what?”

Her voice is light, teasing. Despite her lingering embarrassment, Hyunjung feels a little thrill run
through her. She ducks her head.

“That I thought you were really pretty,” she admits, very quietly.

“What?”
Hyunjung takes a deep breath and raises her head to repeat herself, only to realise Bona is grinning
into her hand, eyes crinkling with the force of her smile.

“You—you’re too much, Bona-ssi,” she protests.

She supposes she should’ve seen this coming when she decided to like one of the most
mischievous members of the group.

“You can call me unnie, you know,” Bona tells her. “You don’t have to be so formal.”

“I’m, um, older than you,” Hyunjung says awkwardly. “By a year.”

“Oh.” Bona blinks, and then the breathtaking smile is back on her face. “Okay then…unnie.”

Hyunjung wants to put her face in her hands.

“So,” Bona says, seemingly oblivious to her flustered state, tapping her album with her pen. “Who
am I addressing this to?”

Hyunjung panics a little. She knows fansite masters usually ask for idols to sign to their fansite
name; it’s what they’re more likely to recognise and remember, after all. Even during her days as
an Taeyeon fansite, she’d always asked for albums to be signed to her fansite name. But then
again…

Behind Bona, she sees the manager give her a meaningful glance. She’s running out of time.

“Hyunjung,” she says hesitantly. “My name is Hyunjung.”

Bona writes it down and signs the page, smile tugging at her lips. “Okay.”

Hyunjung timidly takes the album from her, her head spinning. She’d talked to Bona. And
probably made a complete fool out of herself in the process, but still. She’d just had a conversation
with Bona.

In the background, she sees the manager start to tap her wrist. Hyunjung opens her mouth, closes
it, then opens it again. She fumbles for a meaningful parting statement, something about how she
really likes WJSN’s music and WJSN and Bona, but then Bona smiles at her again and her
thoughts dissolve into incoherency.

It’s gentle, grateful, with no trace of her earlier playfulness.

“Thank you for being by my side, master-nim,” she says earnestly. She places her hand on
Hyunjung’s album, just inches from her own fingertips. “‘I’ll try my best not to let you down.”

You could never, Hyunjung wants to say, but Bona is speaking again, that familiar cheeky glint in
her eye returning. “Even though I’m not your type.”

She waves as the next fan takes Hyunjung’s place, giggling into her hand as Hyunjung splutters
helplessly.

She heads offstage on wobbly legs to rejoin Juyeon and and a teary-eyed Sojung, both of whom had
gone before her.

“So? How was it?” Juyeon demands, looking at her expectantly. She’s grinning, cheeks a little
flushed from excitement.

“Uhhh,” Hyunjung says, coherently. She stumbles her way to a chair.

“Bona was laughing a lot when she was talking to you, unnie,” Sojung tells her, sniffling.

“Really,” Hyunjung says dazedly. She nudges Juyeon. “Why is Sojung crying again?”

Juyeon rolls her eyes. “Soobin laughed at one of her jokes or something. Unnie, let’s see your
album.”

Right. Gingerly, Hyunjung flips through the pages. Bona’s page comes first, of course—she’s their
oldest member. Her fingers hover jerkily over Bona’s signature, like she can’t quite believe what
just happened.

Juyeon peers over her shoulder. “You asked her to sign to your real name?”

Across from them, Sojung makes a face. “After all that trouble I went to of picking a good fansite
name?”

She presses a hand to her chest dramatically. Both Juyeon and Hyunjung ignore her.

Hyunjung sucks in a breath. “Yeah, but…”

Right under the words to Hyunjung unnie, Bona had added the words my rose ♡ in little
parentheses.

“Huh, unnie.” Juyeon sounds awed. “I guess she knew.”

In a stroke of luck, WJSN announces their first concert will be held a day after their finals end.

Unfortunately, this also means tickets go on sale right when Hyunjung, Juyeon, and Sojung are all
drowning in a sea of tests and assignments. As is usually the case, they agree to each try for three
tickets, just to be safe. They can sell off whatever excess they have, anyway. Hyunjung isn’t
worried; surely they’ll manage to scrounge up three tickets among the three of them.

On ticketing day, Hyunjung is awoken from a much-needed nap by an annoying, persistent

buzzing noise. She grumbles, yawns, and reaches blindly for the source of the noise, wanting it to
stop so she can go back to sleep.

Her fingers close around her phone, and she brings it to her face, squinting at the screen.

Five missed alarms and about thirty texts, most of them from Juyeon. Hyunjung jolts up, now wide
awake.

geundeokie
unnies did anyone manage to get tickets
i only got 2 ㅜㅜ
hello
UNNIES
ur silence is worrying

Hyunjung smacks a hand to her forehead.

hyunjung
it’s sold out right…;;

geundeokie
yeah ofc it’s sold out
how many did you get..

hyunjung
i overslept,,,
ㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ

geundeokie
UNNIE HOW…
maybe sojung unnie had more luck than me
we just need 1 more ticket
plsplspsppsps @exysexy

hyunjung
@exysexy
@exysexy
@exysexy

chu sojung
ticketing was today????

hyunjung
fuck

As the day of the concert draws closer, Hyunjung starts to get a little desperate. She’s swimming in
things to study and deadlines to meet; she doesn’t have the time to camp on Twitter to search for
ticket resellers.

Eventually, she takes to her Twitter account and tweets, does anyone have a ticket to sell for
WJSN’s concert next week, I didn’t manage to get one in time ㅠㅠ

Within half an hour or so, more than a hundred people have retweeted her tweet. Which is
encouraging. Her mentions are soon flooded with people either sympathising with her or hoping
she gets a ticket so that they’ll be able to see her pictures.

But no one seems to be selling a spare ticket.

Hyunjung sighs, puts her phone aside, and tries to be patient.

Just before she’s about to head to bed, her phone pings with a DM notification. Hyunjung picks it
up a little warily.

She doesn’t know who could possibly have a reason to DM her—the only people she talks to are
Sojung and Juyeon, and they usually message on Kakaotalk. It’s a scam, probably. Or a bot. Or
both.

hi! the message reads. are you still looking for a ticket?

Curiously, Hyunjung clicks on the person’s icon. The account is about two years old, following a
little over a hundred accounts, but with just two followers. The icon is a picture of Bona; Hyunjung
recognises it as one she’s taken. The header is a generic picture of an ocean. The username, an
amalgamation of consonants and numbers.

No tweets, just retweets. Hyunjung’s suspicion climbs. Over the months, as one of Bona’s most
popular fansites, she’s gotten her fair share of weirdos messaging her. Most of them have accounts
that look just like this one.

She decides not to reply.

Three days before the concert and still with only two tickets total, while she’s studying with Sojung
and Juyeon, Hyunjung figures she’s desperate enough to revisit the offer.

She reopens the DM request and hesitates for just a fraction of a second before pressing Accept.

@bonasrose
hi yes I am
are you selling one?

There’s no reply. Hyunjung shrugs, disappointed but not surprised, and turns back to her notes.

An hour and a half later, her phone buzzes.

^__^ @wldusl2215
yes!!
i have a ticket for section A if you want!!

Section A houses the best seats in the venue; Juyeon’s two tickets are from this section. Hyunjung
chews on her bottom lip.

@bonasrose
that’s perfect actually
how much are you selling it for?

^__^ @wldusl2215
umm
is 5.0 ok?

Hyunjung balks.

@bonasrose
50, 000 won right…
are you sure
for seats that good those tickets are at least double the price you’re asking ;;

There’s no immediate reply. Hyunjung’s suspicion levels skyrocket. There is no way this ticket is
real.

@bonasrose
are you trying to scam me…

^__^ @wldusl2215
ahh
noooo!!
i promise i’m not
i just like the photos you take a lot and i hope you’ll be at the concert…ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
here
i can send you a picture!

Hyunjung squints at the photo of the ticket. It certainly looks legitimate.

“Guys,” she says slowly. “I think I might’ve found someone with a ticket to sell.”

“Who?” Juyeon jumps up immediately, coming to peer over her shoulder, Sojung following closely
behind. Hyunjung shows them the ticket, then clicks on the person’s icon again, letting them see
the account.

“That’s not suspicious at all,” Sojung comments.

“I don’t know,” Hyunjung says, uncertain, “they sound genuine…”

“Unnie, scammers always sound genuine,” Juyeon tells her. “That’s how they scam you.”

Next to her, Sojung is shaking her head. “I got scammed once.” She ignores Hyunjung’s muttered
that doesn’t surprise me. “They dipped after asking me for payment.”

“Unnie, meet up with them instead of sending money,” Juyeon urges. “So they can’t do that to
you.”

“Oh.” Hyunjung blinks. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“But do it in a public place,” Juyeon adds hastily. “And we’re coming with you!”

Hyunjung returns her attention to her conversation with the strange account.

@bonasrose
that looks good
could we meet up?
I’ll pay you then and you can give me the ticket in person
I just don’t want to risk anything ^^

^__^ @wldusl2215
ah
i can’t do meetups i’m sorry……ㅜㅜ

Hyunjung’s face falls.

“Red flag,” Juyeon says.

“Be more understanding,” Sojung tells her. “They could just be shy. Or ugly.”

“I’m sure there are other reasons why someone wouldn’t want to meet up, unnie,” Juyeon says
exasperatedly. “Other than being ugly.”

As if sensing her hesitation, the person messages again.

^__^ @wldusl2215
i know this probably seems suspicious ㅜᄋㅜ
what about this
i can send the ticket to you first!!
and if everything looks ok, you can send me the money?

Sojung is shaking her head again. “This is too good to be true.”

“That works in our favour, though,” Hyunjung says thoughtfully. “We’d have nothing to lose.”

She thinks, anyway. She hopes she doesn’t regret this.

@bonasrose
ah really ㅜㅜ
sure then, if you don’t mind..

^__^ @wldusl2215
yeah!
can you give me an email i can forward the ticket to? ^___^

@bonasrose
okay!
thank you so much

Five minutes later, her inbox pings with a new email. They huddle together, staring critically at the
ticket, trying to find some sign it isn’t legitimate. Juyeon even pulls up the tickets she’d bought for
comparison.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Hyunjung says finally.

“Me neither,” Sojung says, squinting with the effort.

“Same,” Juyeon echoes.

She feels a giddy sort of happiness begin to grip her. She’s going to see WJSN again. At their first
concert. She’s going to see Bona.

@bonasrose
ahhh
thank you
seriously ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
how do I pay you?

^__^ @wldusl2215
yay!!
i’ll send you my payment info
enjoy the concert!!!! ^__^

@bonasrose
I will! ^^
thank you again~
Hyunjung might complain about bright lights and loud music, but attending live performances
thrill her all the same, deep down.

The thunderous roar of the crowd, the deep rumble of the bass that runs through her body as it
reverberates throughout the venue, her friends falling over each other in their excitement before the
concert even starts, getting to see the idols she usually stares at through a screen in real life, radiant
under the glow of the spotlights, performing some of her favourite songs.

The not-scammer had sold her a good seat—better than the ones Juyeon had gotten, even—she’s
right in front of the stage, so close she can see the sequins on the members’ outfits twinkle as they
catch the light. Bona has taken centre stage, and Hyunjung can see every coy look, every smirk,
every (attempted) wink clear as day.

She nearly forgets she’s supposed to be taking pictures.

As the song ends and the members mill about the stage, waving to fans, Hyunjung puts her eye to
her camera again, keeping her lens trained on Bona as she moves around the stage. She does have a
fansite to run, after all.

Bona continues walking, nearing Hyunjung’s side of the stage. Through the tiny window of her
viewfinder, she sees the idol turn to face her camera.

Her heart skips a beat.

She nearly drops her camera in her hurry to press the shutter, but catches it in the nick of time—
against her face. The metal frame bangs painfully against her nose.

“Ow.” She winces, eye squeezing shut from the pain. She clutches at her face with her free hand,
praying it won’t bruise. Steadiest hands my ass. If her old SNSD fansite friends could see her now,
they’d be laughing.

As she feels gingerly for any lasting damage, she becomes very aware of one thing.

Bona is still looking in her direction. And she’s giggling, hand pressed to her mouth. At her.

Hyunjung is mortified.

Bona taps the side of her own nose, mouths something at her. Are you okay?

Slowly, Hyunjung nods.

Bona nods, satisfied, and wanders away to give the other side of the stage her attention. Hyunjung
rubs her nose dazedly, the dull throb of pain barely grounding her.

Okay, so she hadn’t gotten another of her legendary shots. But—she recalls Bona’s laugh, her
smile when she’d made eye contact with her. She’d noticed her. Granted, she’d noticed her banging
her face against her own camera, but still.

Hyunjung presses her eye to the viewfinder again, unable to hide her grin.

A few days after the concert, Hyunjung posts a few of the pictures she’d taken, then switches over
to her DMs and clicks on her conversation with the unnamed not-scammer.

@bonasrose
hi
thank you so much again ㅠㅠ
here are some pictures I didn’t post
to repay you!

^__^ @wldusl2215
oh!!
you don’t have to do that
hehe

@bonasrose
it’s too late
I already am

Hyunjung smiles to herself, sending some of her favourites from the night: one she’d taken of Bona
crouched onstage, arms wrapped around her legs, pouting at a member out of frame—Dayoung, if
Hyunjung remembers correctly, for calling her short; a couple from their performance of Blow,
including shots of Bona running her hands through her hair, over her taut abdomen, biting her lip;
finally, Hyunjung’s personal favourite, a shot she’d (eventually) managed to get of Bona smiling at
her, dimple in full force. Or her camera, rather.

^__^ @wldusl2215
thank you master-nim ㅜ__ㅜ
these are so
!!!!!!!
you’re a really good photographer

@bonasrose
it’s nothing
it’s easy when she looks like that, really

^__^ @wldusl2215
ahh
hehe
you got a shot of her smiling!

@bonasrose
yeah she’s nice enough to smile for my camera a lot ;;
ofc I don’t think she can see me in the crowd when I’m taking pictures
or anything
probably just a camera and fansite name
but it’s still really nice ;-;

^__^ @wldusl2215
how do you know?
i mean
the seat i gave you was really close hehe
maybe she recognised you ^_^

@bonasrose
please
I have a weak heart
I can’t hear things like these ㅜㅜ

^__^ @wldusl2215
ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ sorry
but you’re a fansite master that shows up pretty often
and you’ve been to 1 of their fansigns, right?
she probably remembers you from that too

@bonasrose
yeah I have
how do you know that…?

^__^ @wldusl2215
ah
you posted pics from that fansign ^^;;

@bonasrose
oh
right I’m sorry ᄏᄏ
my head’s a mess after the concert

^__^ @wldusl2215
it’s already been three days master-nim…^^

“Why are you smiling like that? It’s freaking me out,” Sojung comments from where she’s
sprawled on her bed.

Hyunjung throws a pillow at her, scowls, and returns her attention to her phone.

@bonasrose
ᄏᄏᄏᄏ shh
or no more pictures for you

^__^ @wldusl2215
are you going to keep sending me more :o

@bonasrose
I meant I won’t post
at all

^__^ @wldusl2215
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
i’m sorry
please think of your fans…

@bonasrose
ᄏᄏ what fans

^__^ @wldusl2215
me
i’m your fan
hehe

Hyunjung hides her grin in her hand. Sojung raises an eyebrow at her from across the room.

@bonasrose
okay then I guess I have to keep posting
:]
btw the first pic…it was when dayoung called her short
she’s so cute ;;

^__^ @wldusl2215
oh yes i remember
hdksfjddls
yeah it was cute

@bonasrose
oh you were there too!

^__^ @wldusl2215
yeah ^^
the ticket i sold you was a spare!

@bonasrose
I hope you kept the better ticket for yourself ;;

^__^ @wldusl2215
hehe
i had the one of the best seats in the house
don’t worry ^^

She and this mysterious person must’ve been sitting near each other, then. Hyunjung frowns, a
question occurring to her.

@bonasrose
we could’ve just met up before the concert then
for the tickets
^__^ @wldusl2215
ah
but
im shy ^__^
sorry master-nim

@bonasrose
it’s okay!!
don’t worry about it
anyway yeah it was so cute
she’s always in denial about her height

^__^ @wldusl2215
she’s not that short

@bonasrose
she is literally the tiniest person in the world

^__^ @wldusl2215
LUDA IS RIGHT THERE

@bonasrose
wow
I didn’t know there were shooters for bona’s height
other than bona herself

^__^ @wldusl2215
i’m around the same height as her
>:(

@bonasrose
oh
so you’re tiny too

^__^ @wldusl2215
i’m not talking to you anymore master-nim
byebye

@bonasrose
ᄏᄏᄏᄏ I’m sorry I’m sorry

^__^ @wldusl2215
>:(

Hyunjung sends one final picture of Bona from the concert as an apology, then closes Twitter,
smiling to herself and electing to ignore the strange looks Sojung is throwing her way.
The year draws to a close, and brings with it, as it always does, a flurry of Season’s Greetings
announcements. Hyunjung is making her own this year, as is Sojung and Juyeon. She has hundreds
of unreleased Bona photos, anyway; she might as well put them to good use.

She’s already handpicked the photos that’ll make up the calendar, designed the accompanying
merch, made all the necessary preparations—the next step is to start taking orders. She does have a
form ready, but she’d like to have it in English and Mandarin as well so international fans can
place orders too, if they’d like. She’d already tweeted the other day, asking for translators; she’d
gotten an English translator pretty quickly, but no one’s contacted her offering their Mandarin
translation services.

Hyunjung hopes someone will come forward. If not, she’ll have to rely on Google’s shitty
translation services.

She checks Twitter again, and notices someone’s DM-ed her.

^__^ @wldusl2215
hi again master-nim!!
do you still need translators?
it might take some time but
i know mandarin ^-^

@bonasrose
oh!
yes I do!
thank you ㅜㅜ you’re always helping me…
I don’t even know your name

^__^ @wldusl2215
ah!

The dots that indicate they’re typing disappear and reappear for several seconds.

^__^ @wldusl2215
my name is jiyeon!

@bonasrose
oh! like bboya
her real name

^__^ @wldusl2215
yeah!
it’s a common name ^^;;
what’s yours?

@bonasrose
hyunjung!
so you don’t need to keep calling me master-nim ᄏᄏ
^__^ @wldusl2215
should i call you unnie instead then

@bonasrose
you don’t even know how old I am

^__^ @wldusl2215
oops hehe
how old are you?

@bonasrose
late 94!

^__^ @wldusl2215
ooo okay
i’m 95!!
hyunjung unnie ^__^

@bonasrose
:]
it might be easier if I send the links through kkt…
it’s hard to find things in twitter dms sometimes ;;

^__^ @wldusl2215
ah hmm

@bonasrose
only if you’re comfortable though!

^__^ @wldusl2215
yeah! i think it’s fine
i’ll give you my ID!
i trust you ^^

@bonasrose
okay :]

hyunjung
hi!

jiyeon
hiiiii

hyunjung
I’ll give you a free copy of course
of this year’s season’s greetings
for your help

jiyeon
oh!! you don’t have to do that
i’ll pay full price!!

hyunjung
you’re too nice…ㅜㅜ
who turns down free stuff
I’ll give you a free copy anyway

jiyeon
let me support you master-nim >:(
who turns down money
i’m paying!! you can’t stop me

hyunjung
FINE

jiyeon
hehe
^__^

Hyunjung feels the corner of her lips tug upwards.

Cute.

They end up talking more often. At first, it’s just to discuss details of the project—whether a
particular page needs to be translated, clarifications on phrases Hyunjung had used here and there,
frequent progress reports Jiyeon takes it upon herself to deliver.

The English translator who had helped her hadn’t communicated with her anywhere near as
frequently, but Hyunjung finds she doesn’t mind. Talking to Jiyeon is nice.

Sometimes Jiyeon disappears for long periods of time, only to reappear at the oddest hours, either
alarmingly late at night or horribly early in the morning. It makes Hyunjung wonder just what kind
of schedule she keeps. She’d asked once, when Jiyeon had started replying to her messages at six in
the morning, but Jiyeon had shrugged it off, saying something about being a morning person and
waking up early to study. (Never mind that Hyunjung had seen her up at 3am just the night before.)

Their conversation drifts to things other than Season’s Greetings; Hyunjung learns Jiyeon’s
favourite member in the group is also Bona (though she’d pretty much already gathered this from
her Twitter profile picture), that Jiyeon had been a fan since debut, and that her current favourite B-
side is You Got.

And, eventually, they start talking about more frivolous things, as well. Like, for example, hotly
debating their favourite Bona hair colours. Jiyeon had said light brown, and Hyunjung had
disagreed. Jiyeon had taken offense almost immediately.
jiyeon
you don’t like her brown hair?

hyunjung
I didn’t say that ᄏᄏ
of course I do but
her black hair has me in a chokehold
when I first saw her irl she had black hair
and it took me approximately 0.2 seconds to fall for her
even though I was in a bad mood that day
it’s special to me :]

jiyeon
okay master-nim
sound logic
you may live to see another day

hyunjung
?? ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ
are you her lawyer?

jiyeon
something like that
^__^

Their conversations sometimes touch on Hyunjung’s knowledge of photography, too. Hyunjung

finds herself telling Jiyeon about the difference between digital and analog photography, and
shows her some of the film photos she’d taken when Jiyeon asks to see them.

Apart from Sojung (who doesn’t count, really, since she was the one who introduced her to
photography in the first place), she’d never had anyone who listened when she started talking
about photography in such detail before. But here she is, talking to someone she’s never met about
the significance of ISO numbers in film.

jiyeon
sooo fansite photos are digital photography, right?
but you usually like film more?

hyunjung
that’s right
I just like the vibes and the feel of an analog camera
and with film you don’t know what your pictures really look like until you develop them
it’s like a surprise!

jiyeon
aaaaa
you’re making me want to try film photography too hehe

hyunjung
 you should! it’s really fun
actually I did take a few photos of bona with my film camera but…
I lost it ㅜ__ㅜ
before I could develop the film…

jiyeon
ah ㅠㅠ

hyunjung
yeah
it was really precious to me too
it was my mom’s camera

jiyeon
unnie ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
what kind of camera was it?

hyunjung
a minolta
this one!

jiyeon
oh!!
it’s pretty
i’m sorry you lost it ㅜㅜ

hyunjung
me too ㅜㅜ

Talking to Jiyeon is nice. Hyunjung likes talking to Jiyeon. A lot. She gets engrossed in their
conversations, to the point where Sojung and Juyeon have started exchanging meaningful looks
when she pulls out her phone to text her. Embarrassingly, as is usually the case when she texts
Jiyeon, Hyunjung will almost always start smiling at her screen, and the looks on their faces will
turn downright judgemental.

Hyunjung ignores them, dodges their questions when they try to interrogate her. For now.

The tingling warmth in her stomach when she talks to Jiyeon is no one’s business but her own.

Amidst the frenzied whirlwind of activity that they sweep themselves up in with WJSN’s newest
comeback, a disconcerting reality check arrives for Hyunjung one day in the form of her grades.

“It’s okay, unnie,” Sojung says, patting her arm. “Mine’s worse.”

Juyeon had fared better than both of them, but only just slightly.

Hyunjung puts her head in her hands. “My dad said he might take away my camera if my grades
keep dropping.”

Juyeon looks between them. “Maybe we should take a hiatus, or something.”

Both Hyunjung and Sojung stare blankly at her.

“I mean,” Juyeon says hastily, “our finals are in a few months. And you’re a senior in university,
Hyunjung unnie. This last semester is going to be important.”

“But the comeback…” Sojung gapes at her.

“We can wait till promotions end, I guess,” Juyeon says uncertainly.

Sojung looks like she’s about to protest, then sags back in her chair, conceding. “Yeah, we
probably should.”

They both look at Hyunjung, whose mouth twists in chagrin. “Yeah…I guess you’re right.”

hyunjung
I think I might
um
[rest]
just a heads up ㅜㅜ

jiyeon
ah

hyunjung
just telling you cause, you know
I know you look forward to my pictures
so they might stop for a while ㅜㅜ

jiyeon
don’t flatter yourself ᄏᄏ
your pictures are good but you’re not irreplaceable, okay? geez

hyunjung
stop lying to yourself
I know I’m your favourite fansite

jiyeon

is everything okay though

was it something i did?

hyunjung
why would it be something you did? ;;

jiyeon
nono i meant something bona* did
sorry
typo

hyunjung
no omg of course not
it’s just
life
my grades are terrible rn ^^;

jiyeon
oh no ㅜ__ㅜ i see
please take all the time you need!!
your studies are more important!!

hyunjung
thank you
jiyeonie ;-;

jiyeon
hehe
i thought it was because you started to like someone else
or something

Hyunjung’s heart stutters in her chest.

hyunjung
well…

Hyunjung hesitates, chickens out, overthinks her next words several times over, before throwing
caution to the wind.

hyunjung
I might be…starting to like someone else
idk haha

jiyeon
oh

Jiyeon doesn’t say anything else. For a few heart-stopping minutes, Hyunjung thinks she knows.
Then her phone buzzes again.

jiyeon
who is it?

Hyunjung’s phone slips between her fingers. She clutches at it uselessly, fingers scrabbling across
the screen, before it finally lands on her carpeted floor with a dull thud. She picks it up hurriedly,
swearing under her breath.

hyunjung
ㅐㅡᄋ
ᄋ ㅜ

jiyeon
...? ᄏᄏ

hyunjung
sorry,,
I dropped my phone ;;;;;

jiyeon
cute
hehe

Hyunjung nearly drops her phone again.

hyunjung
um…I can’t tell you
who it is
but yeah
I’ll always be bona’s fan but
I think I might like this person a little more…you know?

Bona is, after all, an idol. And as a fan, Hyunjung knows her limitations, knows she should respect
the boundaries between fan and celebrity. What she feels for Bona should remain nothing more
than healthy admiration. What Jiyeon makes her feel, on the other hand…

jiyeon
ah…i see haha

hyunjung
^^;;
there’s still a fansign tomorrow though
I’m excited for that
jiyeon
yeah!
i’m excited for your pics too

Jiyeon goes offline before Hyunjung can say goodnight like they usually do. Hyunjung blinks at
the screen, then shrugs and sends it anyway. She types out goodnight jiyeonie sleep well ^^, then
grimaces and hurriedly presses backspace.

If she thought she was being obvious before…

She types and retypes several variations of the sentence before finally settling on the most
innocuous one.

hyunjung
goodnight!

Nailed it.

Jiyeon doesn’t reply. Jiyeon always says goodnight when she does.

Maybe she was being too obvious. Maybe Jiyeon’s figured it out, and she’s weirded out by the idea
of Hyunjung liking her—

“Unnie, quit looking at your phone.” Sojung prods her. “They’re here!”

“Ah.” Hyunjung swears under her breath and fumbles with her camera. Beside her, the click click
click of dozens of rapid-fire camera shutters sound as the girls walk in. Hyunjung waits with bated
breath, scanning the line until she sees—there.

Bona has adopted golden brown hair and lighter makeup for this comeback, and it softens her
features in a way that makes Hyunjung’s knees a little weak. She keeps her finger poised on the
shutter, waiting for Bona to look up, maybe spot Hyunjung’s camera like she always seems to do…

But Bona continues to walk to her place. While the rest of the members smile and wave cheerily at
the fans present, she seems lost in thought, distracted.

Hyunjung manages to get a few good shots in anyway. Bona’s delicately sculpted side profile lacks
for nothing in charm.

While she’s waiting for her turn, Hyunjung takes a break from taking pictures, laying her camera in
her lap. The fan currently talking to Bona is absurdly tall, anyway; Hyunjung can hardly see her,
much less take a decent photo.

She picks up her phone again, swiping to unlock it. It opens where she’d left it; her KakaoTalk
message history with Jiyeon. Hyunjung winces.

Stupid. She shouldn’t have said that. What had she been thinking?

Trying to avoid looking at that part of the chat, she scrolls up hastily, landing on a conversation
they’d had a few days ago. Jiyeon had sent a picture of iced coffee she’d bought, and Hyunjung
had replied, don’t tell me this is your fourth one today, or something.

okay, unnie, Jiyeon had replied cheekily. it’s not my fourth one.

I think you’re addicted, jiyeonie, Hyunjung had said with affectionate exasperation.

if i don’t drink any coffee my body starts to vibrate! Jiyeon had told her brightly. isn’t that funny?

……no, that’s a sign of caffeine addiction… Hyunjung had replied, alarmed.

Despite the anxiety her clumsy almost-confession has caused, Hyunjung finds herself smiling at
the memory.

She shakes her head fondly, locking her phone and intending to return her attention to the fansign,
hoping the tall fan blocking Bona has moved on to the next member. She glances up again, and
nearly jumps in surprise.

Bona is looking right at her, face impassive.

Hyunjung’s pulse races. Her hand twitches towards her camera, but she’s too slow.

Bona holds her gaze for a fraction of a second longer before glancing away.

As distracted as Bona had seemed at the start of the fansign, she’s all smiles when Hyunjung
finally gets her chance to talk to her, receiving Hyunjung’s album with an animated greeting,
signing it with a flourish, and talking cheerfully about their comeback.

But Hyunjung’s been her fan long enough to be able to tell that her smile seems a little strained at
the corners, that it doesn’t quite meet her eyes the way it usually does.

So after trading a few sentences about their favourite tracks on the album, Hyunjung asks her
quietly, “Is everything okay today?”

Bona blinks, lips parted. For a moment, she looks caught off guard. Then, she nods.

“Yeah! Everything is fine, unnie.”

Hyunjung doesn’t think it is, but Bona flashes her a brief smile, the first genuine smile she’d seen
from her all day, and Hyunjung returns it. “Okay. That’s good to hear.”

She knows and respects her limits as a fan, after all. It’s not her place to press an idol for answers
she doesn’t want to give.

When her time is up, Hyunjung gratefully receives her album from the idol and stands, getting
ready to move on to the next member. Behind Bona, the manager is already tapping her wrist,
looking at her sternly.

Just before she leaves, Bona tilts her head at her, gives her a small smile, and says softly, “Thank
you for staying by my side all these years, unnie. I hope you’re always happy and healthy.”

It’s Hyunjung’s turn to blink at her, momentarily at a loss for words. Before she can respond, the
manager is already impatiently ushering her along.

hyunjung
I can’t do it ㅜ__ㅜ
I won’t be going on hiatus

The dots that indicate Jiyeon is typing appear, then disappear, then appear again.

jiyeon
oh! oh

hyunjung
today she said something that made me think
if I rest
WHAT IF SHE THINKS I LEFT THE FANDOM ㅠㅠ
so I can’t do it

jiyeon
ah unnie!!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
i’m sure she meant it as like
well wishes…

hyunjung
noooo you had to be there
she looked kinda sad too ㅠㅠ
almost like she knew…
wait
how do you know what she said
I haven’t even told you yet

jiyeon
huh
i’m just guessing haha
i wasn’t at the fansign
what did she say?
 hyunjung
“thank you for staying by my side all these years”
“I hope you’re always happy and healthy”
she said that ㅜㅜ
how can I go inactive if she says something like that…

jiyeon
but
what about that other idol?
the one you said you like

hyunjung
idol?
ah
nooo i was talking about a crush on someone not liking another idol…;;

jiyeon
oh…………

Jiyeon doesn’t say anything else. Hyunjung squints at the screen in bemusement.

A minute later, another message pops up.

jiyeon
i almost thought you were leaving the fandom for another idol…^^;;

hyunjung
would you have stopped talking to me if I did?
ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ

jiyeon
no!! of course not!!
you’re more to me than just a fansite, master-nim
hehe

Hyunjung buries her face into her pillow, grinning stupidly. Her phone pings again.

jiyeon
you have a crush?

Fuck.

Hyunjung panics, remembers the anxiety that gripped her when she thought Jiyeon was weirded
out by the thought of her liking her. Without thinking, her fingers type out a response.
 hyunjung
yeah one of my classmates haha ^^;

jiyeon
ah
i hope it goes well!

hyunjung
I don’t know about that
fkdshfjsd

jiyeon
you’re pretty and nice to talk to, unnie
anyone would like you

Hyunjung’s heart nearly stops. She types huh?, erases it, what do you mean?, erases it, you know
what I look like?, erases it—

jiyeon
i mean you seem like you’d be pretty*
from the vibes you give off!!!
sorry my head is everywhere today
i don’t know what you look like of course
ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ

hyunjung
oh ^^;
yeah I was confused
but thank you
but anyway yes
not leaving the fandom! I could never stop liking wjsn
and bboya ;;

jiyeon
but unnie
i’m sure she would want you to focus on your studies

hyunjung
my dad did say he’d take away my camera if my grades kept being bad ㅜㅜ

jiyeon
see ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ
then you really wouldn’t be able to see her
and then she really would think you left the fandom

hyunjung
noooo ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
 okay okay
I’m doing it right now

Dutifully, she tweets about going inactive, logs out of her fansite account, and returns to
KakaoTalk.

hyunjung
done!

jiyeon
i saw it!!
i’m proud of you unnie
hehe
rest well, you had a busy day!!
thank you for your pictures and hard work again
goodnight ♡

hyunjung
goodnight
jiyeonie :]

“Unnie.” Juyeon frowns. Hyunjung winces, bracing herself. “What do you mean you like someone
you’ve never met?”

“It’s possible,” Hyunjung says defensively. “You can like someone’s personality.”

“You don’t even know what they look like,” Juyeon says, sounding aghast. “They could be a forty-
year-old man!”

“Jiyeon is younger than me,” Hyunjung protests. “She calls me unnie!”

Juyeon points her fork at her. “She could be faking her age. And gender. You wouldn’t know,
‘cause you’ve never seen her in real life. She won’t even meet you to give you tickets!”

“She’s shy,” Hyunjung says weakly.

The first and last time she’d asked Jiyeon to meet up was more than a year ago, when she’d given
Hyunjung that concert ticket. She’d wanted to respect her friend’s boundaries, so she hadn’t asked
again.

“You see what I mean?” Juyeon waves her fork in the air aggressively. “Two months into our
hiatus and you’re losing your mind already.” She turns to Sojung, who’s been oddly quiet the entire
time, head bowed over something under the table. “Unnie, you agree with me, right?”

“What are you doing?” Hyunjung says suspiciously. “Where’s my phone?”

Sojung raises her head and looks between both of them. Hyunjung does not like the grin that’s
forming on her face. “I don’t know,” she says. “She seems pretty willing to meet up with you.”

Hyunjung pales and lunges forward, snatching her phone out of her hands. “What did you do?”

“I just helped you along, unnie,” Sojung says innocently, while Hyunjung scrolls through their
chat in abject horror.

hyunjung
hey so
I know you’re shy about meeting people but I really want to hang out with you irl hehe
it’s totally okay if you don’t want to though

jiyeon
ah
i don’t know…

hyunjung
don’t worry!! it’s okay!!
I just thought it would be fun
I really like talking to you and I think we could be good friends in real life too
I promise I’m not a serial killer or anything
but only if you’re comfortable ofc

jiyeon
i really really want to ㅜㅜ
but
ahh you know what
sure!! let’s do it!!

“Chu Sojung,” Hyunjung growls.

“You should be thanking me, unnie,” Sojung tells her, looking very pleased with herself. “You
never would’ve said anything otherwise, you would’ve just kept smiling at your phone like an
idiot. Our hair will turn white waiting for you to make a move.”

Beside her, Juyeon is shaking her head slowly. “She could be a serial killer, for all you know.”

Sojung waves her hand dismissively. “Tell her you want to meet in a public place. And we’ll be
somewhere in the vicinity.”

Hyunjung is barely listening, frantically typing out an apology.

hyunjung
jiyeon I’m so sorry
that was my friend ㅜㅜㅜㅜ

jiyeon
oh?
so you don’t want to meet me?
ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ

hyunjung
NO just
I don’t want you to have to do something that makes you uncomfortable ㅜㅜ

jiyeon
unnie im just teasing you it’s fine hehe
it’s okay!!
really
i want to meet you too
^___^

hyunjung
aaaaaaa
hw die s bext saturadya siyhbd
im sorry !!!
ᄏᄏᄀᄁᄀᄀ hahaha um
how does next saturday sound,,

jiyeon
ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ
saturday is perfect!
but
ahh
unnie you have to promise you won’t…idk…be too mad…or disappointed…idk ㅜ___ㅜ

“I was right all along,” Sojung says, peering over her shoulder. “She must be ugly.”

“Or she’s a forty-year-old man and she’s been lying to you this whole time,” Juyeon says.

Hyunjung rolls her eyes and shoves both of them, ignoring their loud noises of protest. “Stop
looking at our conversation.”

hyunjung
why would I be any of those things?? ㅠㅠ
I can’t wait for next saturday

jiyeon
me too unnie
see you ♡

hyunjung
see you jiyeonie :]
Next Saturday comes too slowly and too quickly all at once.

Hyunjung is a good twenty minutes early. She places herself by a recognisable landmark—a large,
conspicuous fountain—that’s conveniently situated next to a coffee shop (she’ll ask if Jiyeon wants
to get coffee. She likes coffee. Jiyeon likes coffee. That’s a good idea. Right? Right.) and shifts
from foot to foot, pretending to busy herself with her phone, glancing furtively around every now
and then to see whether there’s anyone in the vicinity that looks like they could be Jiyeon.

Unfortunately, at Juyeon’s insistence, she’d picked a very crowded place to meet. And at forty
minutes past one in the afternoon on a Saturday, any of these girls in the crowd could be Jiyeon. Or
—if she lets herself entertain what Juyeon said, whoever she’s meeting might not even be a girl her
age.

No—she trusts Jiyeon. And Jiyeon wouldn’t have agreed to meet her if she were a forty-year-old
man, or something. Right?

The minutes tick by. Hyunjung worries her bottom lip between her teeth.

The time on her phone reads 2PM. She opens KakaoTalk.

hyunjung
I’m here!
I’m wearing white!
by the big fountain

A minute passes, then two. Then five. Hyunjung’s thumbs hover over her keyboard uncertainly.

jiyeon
unnie i’m so sorry
i had something on ㅠㅠ
2 minutes!! sorry!!

Hyunjung exhales under her breath. She isn’t sure whether to be relieved or terrified.

Two minutes pass by.

jiyeon
im hereeeeeeee
i’m in black!!

Hyunjung’s head jerks up in alarm. Among the throngs of people that swarm around her, a
dizzying majority is wearing black. Her hand twitches up to wave hesitantly at a girl in a black top,
who just gives her an odd look and walks away. Hyunjung’s hand falls back to her side awkwardly.

Just as she’s about to open KakaoTalk and ask Jiyeon to please give her at least another defining
feature to work with, she feels a light tap on her shoulder.

“Unnie?”

The voice is soft, hesitant. Hyunjung swallows and turns around.

The first thing she notices is—Jiyeon is not a forty-year-old man. Take that, Son Juyeon.

But she can’t really see very much of Jiyeon’s face to disprove Sojung’s theory. Jiyeon is wearing a
black sweater, cap pulled low over her brow, mask covering most of her face. From what
Hyunjung can see of her face, she’s smiling at her, eyes curving in a way that scratches oddly at
Hyunjung’s brain.

There’s something awfully familiar about the girl before her, but she can’t quite place it.

“Hi,” Jiyeon says, still smiling. Hyunjung has to strain a little to hear her over the bustling crowd.
“It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Hyunjung’s mouth opens before she can stop it. “You are tiny,” she blurts.

Jiyeon stops smiling. Her hand comes up to push Hyunjung’s shoulder as she makes an indignant
noise—and just like that, the air of polite awkwardness between them shatters.

“Unnie,” she complains, and there’s a whine in her voice Hyunjung can’t keep from smiling at.
“You aren’t even that much taller!”

“Compared to you it feels like I am,” Hyunjung says, and hides her smile as Jiyeon pushes her
shoulder again.

“Did you ask to meet me just so you could tease me?”

Hyunjung’s cheeks are starting to hurt. Maybe she’s smiling too much. Is she smiling too much?
She tries to stop, but then Jiyeon makes a displeased little huffy noise, and Hyunjung is smiling
again.

“I’m sorry,” she says, laughing. “Um…buy you coffee to make up for it?”

Jiyeon’s eyes widen under the brim of her cap. Hyunjung’s brain itches strangely again. Why does
she seem so familiar? “Coffee?”

“Yes, you addict.” Hyunjung inclines her head in the direction of the coffee shop she most
definitely hadn’t taken the time to scope out earlier. “Shall we?"

At Jiyeon’s request, they ditch the coffee shop in favour of taking a walk around the area. Summer
is starting to bleed nicely into fall; it’s the perfect temperature to be outside. Hyunjung tries to
focus on her drink instead of being hyper-aware of the girl walking beside her.
(She doesn’t succeed.)

“You do still like Iced Americanos, right?” Hyunjung asks, a little worried.

“Yeah, it’s still my favourite.” Jiyeon sounds happy. “I’m touched you remember, unnie.”

Hyunjung’s eyes flick downward, to Jiyeon’s untouched drink, and Jiyeon follows her gaze.

“Ah,” she says apologetically. “I can’t drink with…” She taps the side of her mask.

“Oh.” Hyunjung blinks. “Do you want to take it off? I can hold your drink.”

Jiyeon tugs on her cap, pulling it further down over her eyes. “Could we…go somewhere less
crowded? I know a nice quiet spot not far off.”

Hyunjung opens her mouth to agree, then shuts it, Juyeon’s voice echoing in her head. Remember,
meet her in a crowded place, unnie! If she wants to bring you somewhere more secluded, say no!
Lots of murders happen that way!

Jiyeon watches her, almost like she can sense Hyunjung’s internal debate. “Don’t worry, I’m not a
serial killer either.” She sounds amused. “We’re not going into an alley or anything. It’s a nice
place, I promise.”

"That's exactly what a serial killer would say."

Hyunjung can't see the rest of Jiyeon's face, but from the scrunch of her brows and the petulance in
her voice, she imagines she's pouting. "I'm not a serial killer..."

Whatever's left of Hyunjung's resolve crumbles. “Okay. Lead the way.”

If she dies today, it'll be because she's hopeless when it comes to giving in to cute girls.

It is a nice place.

Some walking and a lot of stairs are involved to get there, and if it were anyone else Hyunjung
might have complained, but Jiyeon starts tugging on her sleeve on the way there to point out things
like a chipmunk scurrying along the broken pathway, a clump of peculiar-looking plants, a couple
of birds perched among the trees, and Hyunjung finds it very hard to be grumpy about all the
walking they have to do.

Eventually, they arrive at a quiet picnic spot perched on the little hill they’d climbed, overlooking
the area they’d been strolling around in. Hyunjung sets her drink down on the granite table, looking
at the buildings laid out distantly before them, their rooftops glinting sharply in the sun, the people
milling about below like ants.

“Unnie,” Jiyeon says from behind her.

“Hm?” Hyunjung turns, picking up her iced coffee to take another sip. Jiyeon still has her cap and
mask on. “It’s okay if you’re shy. Really.”

Admittedly, she will be a little disappointed if she doesn’t get to see what Jiyeon looks like today,
 but it’s not worth the price of Jiyeon’s comfort.

“It’s not that.” Jiyeon’s hands twist together. “Um. Don’t be mad, okay?”

“There you go again.” Hyunjung laughs a little, bemused. “Why would I be mad?”

“Um,” Jiyeon says again. She sounds nervous. Her head dips downward, the brim of her cap
shielding her eyes.

Hyunjung takes a few steps closer to her. Jiyeon doesn’t look up. Tentatively, she reaches out, and
hesitates for just a moment before lightly touching the sleeve of Jiyeon’s sweater.

“It’s okay,” she says softly, “Jiyeonie.”

Jiyeon’s head jerks up, eyes meeting hers for a split second, before it drops back down. She laughs
shakily. “I’m sorry, unnie…I haven’t been completely honest with you…”

Hyunjung mirrors her laugh, even though she’s still confused. “So you are a serial killer and
you’ve brought me here to quietly murder me?”

No reaction. Hyunjung frowns. “This is the part where you laugh.”

“Unnie,” Jiyeon says, ignoring her feeble attempt at humour. “I’m serious.”

Slowly, she slips her mask off one ear, then the other. Hyunjung finds herself holding her breath.

Jiyeon nudges her cap off her head. Pulls her mask away from her face. Looks up at her tentatively.

A loud splatter sounds as Hyunjung‘s coffee cup crashes messily to the ground. The lid pops open,
spewing iced coffee and half-melted ice cubes onto the worn brick, pooling around their sneakers.

Jiyeon is neither a forty-year-old man, nor is she ugly. She is, in fact, the furthest thing from ugly
Hyunjung has ever seen.

“Bona?”

End Notes

twitter | cc

- chapter 2 coming soon (real)

- come find me on twitter would esp love to make more ujung writer moots <3
- used 170720 jiyeon for inspiration at the start bc she’s [CAR CRASHING NOISES]
- messed w the wuju timeline re songs / hair a bit just bc i can <3 i imagined them with
happy era hair at the start tho
- didn’t have to imagine very much of this since 2jung are obsessed with photography and
sojung said she used to chase after b2st’s van and jiyeon is on stan twt irl (cursed)
- jiyeon’s twitter @ is / jiyeonie spelled out on a keyboard and the numbers spell out
bbo (yes it’s supposed to be clapped)
- tried to follow their pm typing style with some exceptions…probably failed
 - hyunjung’s semi meltdown on text when jiyeon agrees to meet w her was inspired by her
seulgi zip meltdown on pm <3
- also this is probably not how fansites work irl but...you know
- escalator scene inspired by a similar incident with yoona and a fansite i can’t find the og
video tho bc it was from 2729428 years ago :^) (EDIT: here is the legendary moment thank
you to wei my beloved hag for finding this for me)

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