shades of yellow » han seojun ff

52. matte

FLASHBACK—THREE YEARS EARLIER

"Are you sure you're not coming home? We're all missing you."

Yeonwoo winded the telephone cord around her little finger; the second she arrived in New York City, she had bought herself a corded telephone in the form of a donut.

"I'm loving life here in New York!" she stood up and walked over to the floor-length window, which provided her a spectacular view of the city. "Every morning I wake up and look out the window and see the bright blue sky. Then, I can look down and see all the people—" she gagged as she saw a tourist throwing up on a falafel cart. "Oh my goodness, I just saw someone throw up on the streets."

Sujin chuckled. "What's not to love about New York City?"

"But I miss Seoul, I really do. But I'm so busy here! I'm in my final year, and there's so much to be done! My performance piece, my final exams, this Tchaikovsky competition that's coming up. Aaaand, Christmas is coming!"

"Well yeah, it's Christmas almost everywhere."

"Winter in New York is something else, though. In fact, I'm heading out to Rockefeller Centre in an hour with Alex to see the Christmas Tree! I've been waiting the whole year to see it again, I can't wait any longer!"

"So much is happening here too! Mr. Han got married to Jugyeong's sister; Sua and Taehoon are back together—"

"Please, I've seen the selfies—I do not want to see them again."

"And so have Suho and Jugyeong."

"Yeah, both of them called me separately a few days ago, they're both absolutely over the moon."

"And Seojun debuted! His concert was amazing, you should have been there."

"Yeah, I saw the Instagram photos." She didn't mention how she jealous she was that all the support she was able to give Seojun was merely a private message and comment, both of which he didn't even reply to. Understandable, considering how his notifications were probably blowing up from all his newfound fans.

"Hey, did you know that ..." Sujin let her sentence trail off.

"Know what?"

"That something happened between Seojun and Jugyeong?"

Yeonwoo laughed. "It's been five years since I've last seen him, I think I'd be fine if you told me if they had hooked up, or—"

"He confessed to her. And nearly kissed her."

"Well ... that isn't so bad." Yet, she couldn't help but feel a little hurt that something reciprocal had happened between them.

"He took her out on a date, but she ..."

"Went back to Suho. Yeah, that we all know."

"Look, Yeonwoo, we all know that you're the only one meant for Seojun." Sujin's voice became even clearer, as if the telephone lines could sense that what she was about to say was important. "So why don't you come back and make him realise that?"

"Things are fine between us, which is all I can handle right now. We text sometimes, the regular How are you's, stuff like that. Why should I spoil our perfectly good friendship?"

"Because it's barely functioning!"

"You're such a bad influence on me, trying to get me to date a K-pop idol," Yeonwoo teased. "His fans would burn you alive."

Sujin acquiesced, "True. He's got loads of fans, and he's just debuted."

"Plus, he liked Jugyeong. Crazy beautiful Jugyeong, who's hilarious and the type of girl a guy gets hung on for years. Trust me, he's not going to get over her soon."

Sujin tried to dissuade Yeonwoo. "This is probably a blip. He's probably confused that his feelings for Jugyeong, which are strictly the best friend type, is love. His crush on Jugyeong will blow over soon and he'll realise that you're the one for him."

"Not anymore. I'm in New York, he's in Seoul." Yeonwoo rested her head morosely on the armrest of her couch. "He's a K-pop idol, I'm unknown."

"Not for long. I've been searching you up on Google for a while, and there has been a lot of coverage on you, ever since you won bronze in that competition a few months ago. Your Instagram follower count is increasing, and you're pretty well-known in the classical music world."

"That's the main adjective. I'm a boring classical musician, he's a heartthrob."

Sujin offered weakly, "Opposites attract?"

Yeonwoo giggled. "It was nice chatting with you Sujin, but I've got to go now. Alex is picking me up. "

"But you said you were leaving in an hour! Hey, don't hang up on—"

"Bye, Sujin! Talk to you later!" Yeonwoo hastened to hang up, then slammed the phone of the donut back on the keypad.

She took a deep breath, letting what Sujin had just told her wash over her. Then, she walked over to her cello and after stretching her muscles, picked up her bow and started to play her scales, beginning with C major.