✓ jeez.

31 | your presence

woochan is quiet when he's with his other friends, only finding himself talking when it's a topic he really tends to enjoy talking too, but when it's with yiying— he just lets her talk it all out without much to think about and does tune in time from time.

"soojin told me she couldn't do the cover of blue hour which i understand, but now i have to figure out what the cover should be— i don't mind the work though!" yiying spoke, being optimistic about the whole ordeal than being sad. she reminds him so much of like a younger sister— something he's never had over the past years as he's always been a younger sibling that's been neglected.

he doesn't mind it though, and just enjoys it when yiying chatters his ear off.
"did you figure out what blue hour means to you exactly?" he asked and the girl thinks for a while, "yeah i did."

"what does it mean to you then?" and the girl looks out the window, watching the clouds and the people who happily smiled throughout the city of seoul.
"you'll see," there's a hint of sadness in her eyes— behind that smile of hers as she mentioned school duties to change the subject.

woochan still saw through it though.

—— 🦊

the album finally releases earlier that day and her fans who are yet to be called by a fandom name are puzzled by why blue hour was now a more calming album than her previous which had more upbeat songs (they all had assumed that the next following songs would be upbeat or somewhere there).

the title track, named 'what do i call you' is a song talking about a girl not knowing what to call her ex after breaking up while deciding to still be friends.

woochan finds himself waiting for yiying to arrive back home from her day at a music show, waiting anxiously with euijoo who hasn't said anything about the whole ordeal, claiming that it wasn't his spot to say anything.

"why didn't she say anything?" the boy is muttering out, and euijoo looks at his fingers, fiddling with them as the atmosphere grew heavier with each passing second. he notices that nicholas isn't here either, nor is his room in the apartment that was perviously covered in the decoration that made his room his were there.

what exactly happened?

the door clicks open, and yiying stumbles into the large apartment. she doesn't even notice her friend by the kitchen counter as she runs a hand through her hair— tears spilling from her eyes as she makes her way to the kitchen.
"yiying," the boy calls out and yiying jolts out of her trace— a dazed look on her face as she turns around to face her friend who seemed to be in denial upon hearing the song and listening closely to the lyrics.

"hi woochan, i didn't expect you here," she tries to excitedly greet him but it doesn't work, woochan could still see through it anyway.
"wh— what happened?"

her eyes show the usual look of confusion, but the boy can see that she's hiding the hurt in her eyes within the confusion, he sighs, waiting for a reply from the girl instead of just cutting her off with what he had in mind.
"what do you mean?" her voice breaks— shattered in tiny pieces that hurt her feet below her. she takes a cup and fills it with water, her hand shaking ever so slightly.

"don't play dumb with me yiying." he spoke, demanding an answer from the idol who continued to stay silence. the silence consumes them for a bit, leaving an awkward awake before them— the idol looks uncomfortable, and seemed distant in her thoughts.
she opened her mouth, before closing it again— pressing her lips together as she held back a bit of her tears, "we broke up."

the silence comes back, and woochan is in shock.
broke up? for what reason?
why did they break up?

the boy looks at yiying with concerned eyes for the idol who seemed to aimlessly wonder around the kitchen, "how—? why?"

she looks down, tapping her fingers against the kitchen counter top as a way to try to calm herself down from bursting out in tears, "we talked a month ago.. and turns out nicholas had decided to transfer universities from tokyo university to the national taiwan university to keep in touch with his parents— and told me that it wasn't because of me that he wanted to transfer universities but because his mom was asking him to transfer to spend more time with the family.. he also mentioned that we should be focusing on other things and that dating doesn't seem like the best idea right now especially since i'm an idol prone to hate if fans ever find out i'm dating."

she takes a slight pause, "so we broke up."

—— 🦊

woochan had asked his professor if he could take a break from attending the classes today— and to his surprise, the professor was kind enough to dismiss him for a day to help tend to his friend's troubles.

so here he was, waiting with yiying until her appearance on stage— she wasn't nervous, she was more fragile especially since her song talked about her current emotions.

"xu yiying, you're up soon." the emcee peeked into the dressing room, landing his eyes on the girl who seemed out of
it when he spoke. the emcee was an older artist in another group, not really a soloist. he noticed the girl's lonely eyes and saw woochan just besides her watching her with worried eyes.
"what happened to her? she's usually so energetic?"

woochan tries to make up a lie that instantly gets noticed, "she's just uh.. getting into the mood you know?"

the idol, going by the name of key shakes his head, "that's impossible, she's already good in getting into the mood if singing ballads during free time ever helped— did she break up with her boyfriend?" he bluntly asked, and the girl's eyes glistened.

the older idol's face turned from confusion to worry, "oh.."

key takes a seat besides her, holding her hands into his own to get her mind off of it, "yi, do you think you can still perform?" he asked first, eyeing the girl with the softest gaze he can muster as the girl bites her inner lip.
"i can try.."

"that's all i needed, cheer up a bit okay? your fans are still waiting for you yiying," he gestures to woochan to take her hands but he doesn't comply— afraid that his comfort wouldn't do much help to the girl.

key doesn't question any more.
yiying can comfort herself in times like this. she's strong enough but i can't help but feel like i'm not doing much.

—— 🦊

the performance finished soon after, and yiying tumbles into her apartment— drained from performing and introducing her song to the public who seemed to love the song as much as how much it meant to the idol.
she cuddled herself into the couch, feeling the couch sink under the weight of her friend.

"would you like to play a game with me? you can choose the game." and the idol nods, letting woochan grab the two controllers for them as they boot up the pokemon scarlet.

twenty minutes pass by in the game, talking and getting excited to see shiny pokemon appear in front of them.

"hey woochan," the idol starts, still staring at the large screen in front of them with tired eyes. it's probably pass ten in the night, but they didn't seem to care about the time right now.
woochan hums, his attention now on yiying who seemed as gloomy as ever, "thank you for being there for me. i know you might have felt like you didn't do anything but your presence really helped me that i wouldn't be alone in this healing process."

—— 🏹 author's notes
woochan really that type of person that wouldn't comfort you verbally or physically, but emotionally
also wow!!! yicho broke up LMAO

and my week's been hectic rn so i'm sorry if this is such a late or delayed chapter lmao finally had a good cry after a while (both parents were the reason this time too lol)