Invisible String || PURINZ

07 • what does it mean?

Because she was. Every time they were close, Chaewon's heart started beating faster. She'd imagine what it was like to be able to hold her whenever she wanted. She wondered if her lips tasted just as sweet as her honey shampoo, and if the rest of her body was just as soft and smooth as her arms and face.

It started with a hallway crush and ended with her heart being broken into a million pieces each and every day, knowing she couldn't have the one thing she wanted more than anything.

Perfect, loveable, stunning Huh Yunjin. Her greatest downfall.

"You're crying."

Chaewon felt a warm stream of tears flow down her cold cheeks. Yunjin tried to wipe them away, but more kept coming.

"I'm sorry," Chaewon mustered. She buried her cheek in the palm of Yunjin's hand, and pulled her closer by wrapping her arms around the girl's middle.

"I love you."

She had her eyes closed. She was aware that Yunjin didn't know what it meant, but she still had to say it.

Yunjin let out a small sigh. "I love you too." She hummed, placing a gentle kiss on the girl's forehead.

"Stop crying now, Chae-chae. It's okay." She made another attempt at wiping away Chaewon's tears. This time she was successful.

"Sorry. I drank too much," The short girl muttered.

Exhaling a chuckle, Yunjin shook her head. "It's fine, it's not the first time I've seen you cry. Just don't... don't do all that again, okay? It hurts." Her voice softened into something much more fragile.

"I don't want to think about my life without you. If half a day was this bad, I don't think I could survive forever."

Chaewon looked down. She was being selfish all this time.

Yunjin tucked a strand of hair behind the girl's ear, a soft smile reappearing on her face. "I know I can be annoying, but you mean the world to me. Or the entire universe."

The short girl's head shot up. "You're not annoying," She said.

"You're you. I wouldn't change a single thing about you."

The other opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a bunch of yelling.

"Are you ladies kissing? And you were annoyed with us! We didn't even kiss!" Kazuha called down the street.

Yunjin quickly glanced down at Chaewon as if she was soaking up the moment. She then released her, leaving her cold and confused.

In less than a minute the two girls had joined them. "What are you still doing out here? You guys left a while ago. You weren't kissing, were you?" Sakura narrowed her eyes.

Chaewon didn't dare speak. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes shiny and she was wallowing in a pool of self pity and embarrassment.

Yunjin's ears were bright red as well after the question. "No, we– we weren't– we wouldn't!" She stammered, unable to find the right answer.

The four of them swayed down the street, one more drunk than the other. Chaewon didn't say a word the entire way, but the others were too far gone to notice.

—x—

They needed the next day to recover. Chaewon needed a little longer since every time she closed her eyes, she remembered her conversation with Yunjin.

Fortunately for them, they had time to sleep in the day after their little outing; though after getting up, they had to hurry to make it to a fan meet.

The next two weeks were incredibly busy: they were finishing up promotions by going to music shows and doing lives on social media, along with a whole lot of photoshoots to post when they're on break (which Chaewon prayed would be soon).

As the girls sat in the changing rooms, having their makeup done, Chaewon thought it a genius idea to go live. She propped her phone against the mirror, made sure she was looking okay, and pressed the starting button.

"Hello, LE SSERAFIM's Chaewon here!" She sang. Somewhere in the back of the mind she still wanted to say IZ*ONE, even after such a long time.

Sakura, who was in the back behind her, turned around to see what she was doing. Upon seeing the girl's phone, she smiled and waved happily. "Hello!" She exclaimed.

Eunchae and Kazuha walked in frame to say hello before joining Sakura in the back, getting some rhinestones placed on their faces as finishing touches.

Then Yunjin came. She was already completely finished and dressed up, just like Chaewon.

The shorter girl studied her as she came walking up to the phone; the skirt she wore exposed her long, slender legs.

Chaewon always loved skirts on Huh Yunjin for that very reason: she's got legs for days. And she knew she shouldn't be staring this much, on or off camera– but she couldn't just look away either.

The tall girl took her place behind Chaewon, placing her arms around her shoulders and trapping her in an embrace. The other felt the chair tilting back slightly as Yunjin leaned on her, but surely a few broken bones were worth being close to a Goddess.

Get it together, Kim.

She shook the thoughts off, banishing them to some faraway realm.

"Chaewon's pretty," Yunjin read from the comments with a large smile on her face. "Oh, Chaewon, marry me. What do you say?"

Chaewon frowned. "Sorry, I'm loyal to my wife." She hummed, leaning her head against Yunjin's– whose chin rested comfortably in the crook of her neck.

"That's right, Fearnot. We're married." Yunjin hummed, showing off her empty ring finger.

Chaewon chuckled, ignoring her fluttering heart and pinkened cheeks. As she looked at the two of them on the screen, they really did look like two pieces of a puzzle. Made to fit together, like how she perfectly fit into the taller girl's arms.

"Song spoiler? No, no..." The leader shook her head disapprovingly– only with a mischievous smile on her face.

Yunjin made a few movements with her hands to spoil a tiny bit of the choreo. The two then laughed about it as if they weren't going to get a good scolding from their managers.

Eventually the rest of the girls joined the two. Eunchae played with Chaewon's short hair, and Sakura kept bickering with Yunjin about some fact that Chaewon didn't even listen to. Then there was Kazuha, who was just happy to be here.

"Okay, we've got to go, manager's yelling at us!" Yunjin grinned at the camera, to which their manager responded: "No, I'm not!"

They ended the live, and suddenly all Chaewon's nerves came rushing back. Being on stage in front of so many people never became normal: she still got nervous, although she was confident.

She stood up from her chair, and faced her members. "Last show before our break. We've worked hard, let's do this!" She said, reaching her hands out.

They chanted and went backstage, getting ready for their big show.