WWWWWWELCOME TO YOUR NEARLY-DAILY-BUT-NOT-ACTUALLY-SCHEDULED MIDNIGHT SPECIAL! TONIGHT, I BRING YOU VAGUENESS WITH A SIDE OF NOT-EXPLAINING-THINGS-PROPERLY!
If u can actually understand the formatting of this, CONGRATULATIONS! U WIN ANOTHER NONEXISTENT COOKIE THAT I CANT MAGICALLY PRODUCE CAUSE OF COVIDDD!
"rhubarb rhubarb" = speech in present time
rhubarb rhubarb = thoughts/descriptions in present time
"rhubarb rhubarb" = speech in a past memory
rhubarb rhubarb = thoughts/descriptions in a past memory
Song: STORY OF US sung by Jo Yuri (from drama Monthly Magazine Home)
*
"Ready?"
"Almost." Yuri rearranged the lyrics on her music stand. She had drawn cute hearts over some lines, underscored particular words, and made sure to circle the text that meant the most to her so she could make sure she'd sing them with feeling, although she was certain she didn't need to use her red pen to remember what lines reminded her of her friends.
A smile full of memories played over her lips.
Taking a deep breath, Yuri pulled the headphones over her ears.
"You got this, Joyul."
"I don't know... it's a really high note-"
"Yuri-ah."
"Yena."
"You WILL sing that note and you WILL slay it. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Ready."
"You got this."
"You make me much better when you're here
I'm lucky when I'm in your atmosphere."
"Yuri unnie... you look dead." Yujin had never been known to tell white lies, but even so, Wonyoung smacked her arm. Yuri looked over at her bandmate, glaring. She knew she looked dead.
Main vocalists were lucky - they got lines, which wasn't a guaranteed for most others. Main vocalists were unlucky - there was always a perfect way to sing the song and you had to get every single line perfect.
"Forgive me for staying up all night recording, Yujin," Yuri said through gritted teeth, ice in her words.
Yujin flinched, lower eyelid twitching. "Ouch. Sorry, Yul. That sucks."
Yuri went back to looking at her phone.
Scrolling through IZ*ONE's Instagram, her eyes couldn't help but catch on a cute selfie of her and Yena. Both girls had their hands on their chins and almost identical bangs that hung just below the eyebrows. Yena's hair was up in a cute high-ponytail and her lips pursed in a way that accentuated the duck-likeness of her mouth.
Yuri couldn't help but smile.
"JOYUL!" Yuri jumped at what was - in her opinion - the most distinctive voice in IZ*ONE. Her phone fell on the couch beside her and she hastily snatched it so Yena wouldn't see what she'd been looking at.
Naturally, this meant that Yena now HAD to know which picture she had been smiling over.
"Joyul, I saw you smile. Show meeee," Yena whined. She flopped down where Yuri's phone had been ten seconds ago.
Yuri glanced up at Yena only to find that Yena had been staring at her. She immediately turned her head down to her lap. She couldn't look now, but Yuri swore that Yena was still looking her up and down.
Her claim was proved right when Yena gently ran her finger right under Yuri's eye and pushed a strand of hair behind Yuri's ear, sparking a line of tingles where her finger had been. Yuri reached up to hold her cheek, shy that Yena had just touched there.
She could feel the blush spread like fire from her nose to the edges of her cheekbones.
"Yul," Yena whispered, sending shivers down her spine. "How late were you up yesterday."
"N-not too late." Yuri kicked herself inwardly for stuttering.
Yena pursed her lips, making that cute duck face come back. Yuri bit back a grin. "Try to get more sleep, yeah?"
"Okay," Yuri mumbled, looking down again.
She didn't see the teasing glint that grew in Yena's eye and in result, was not at all ready for Yena to grab her phone and run behind the couch.
"YAH!" Yuri turned around quickly, trying to grab the phone away, but it was too late.
"Aw," Yena cooed.
Yuri's face felt nuclear.
"Is that me?" Yena beamed down at Yuri, making her face unbearably hot and letting out little fluttery, flappy things in her stomach. "Joyul, you're so cute," Yena chuckled.
Yuri hid her face in her hands as Yena laughed and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl's shoulders.
Yujin and Wonyoung stared from the other side of the couch.
Yujin sighed as Yuri bit her cheek so she wouldn't smile. "To think she was practically dead before Yena came along.
"Every little move you do, every little thing you say
It saves me from falling much deeper."
"Eyes on me! Hello, we are IZ*ONE!" All twelve girls bowed.
When they stood, Yuri pursed her lips.
Right foot kicking the pavement repeatedly, Yuri couldn't slow the pace her heart was beating at. To her dismay, she couldn't stop her fingers either as they tapped out some unknown melody on her palm. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip.
Evidently, she was nervous.
Her fingers switched from playing piano to squeezing the fingers of her opposite hand.
She raked a hand through her hair, not missing the way it almost stuck there because of sweat.
The girls filed one by one into the building.
As soon as her restless fingers resorted to yanking on small chunks of her red curls, Yena was there, placing her hand over Yuri's.
Still walking, Yena pulled Yuri's hand away from her innocent hair, breathlessly gentle.
Turning back to the flustered younger, Yena cocked her head, lips curling into a playful smile.
"Let's not start out the day by getting bald patches, okay?"
"Y-yeah."
Yena giggled and, as she was walking backward, spun back around, leaving her eyes still hooked on Yuri's until the very last second before turning her entire body back forward.
Yuri stood, staring, before rolling her eyes at Yena's successful attempt to look cool.
"Wait up!"
"I lay down my head on your shoulder and think
If I could always be like this
I breathe in your scent and I don't dare to blink
If it could always be like this."
"Joyulll," Yena whined.
Yuri yawned. Late night concerts always went really late. Too late.
"Mhm?"
"Pay attention to what I'm saying!"
Yuri giggled breathily, yawning again. Yena was just too cute. It was distracting.
"Sorry."
"It's okay," Yena said, smile spreading across her lips in a way that made Yuri's heart skip a beat, made it stutter over its usually steady pounding. "Here." Yena patted her shoulder.
"Hm?" Yuri asked, confused and rubbing her eyes.
"Rest on my shoulder. You deserve sleep."
The fact that Yena thought she deserved rest was enough to make Yuri grin and she was too tired to smother it.
"Okay." Yuri fell on Yena's arm.
"Mm. Your arm's soft."
Yena chuckled under her breath. "Thanks. Now sleep."
Yuri inhaled for four seconds, held for four, and exhaled for four.
Yena must have used some lavender-y perfume or shampoo or something.
Yuri decided she liked it.
"You smell nice," she murmured into Yena's shoulder.
"Sleep!" Yena said, laughing.
"Stay with me forever?"
"I'll try my best."
"For. Eh. Ver."
She could practically hear Yena's eye roll, but her eyes were closed, preventing her from seeing it. "Fine. Forever."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Yuri-ah."
"Just listen, here we are again
Through the fire, through the rain
The roads we crossed, they built story of us."
"Roadtrip!" Eunbi had said. "To get our minds off of the producers idiocy," she had said. "It'll be fun," she said.
"Eunbi unnie," Hyewon deadpanned. "I do hate to break it to you, but how is traffic in the rain fun?"
"Yeah," Sakura whined. "There's no WiFi here!"
Hitomi rolled over in her sleep, probably the only one enjoying this besides Eunbi.
"Fine. We'll stop for a little bit. Pull over, please," Eunbi directed the driver.
"W-what?" Yena asked, blinking. "Unnie, you are aware that we're in a road. We're on a freeway. You know that, right?"
"Pull over," Eunbi said again.
Yena looked at Yuri and they stared at each other for a second like "whaaaat?" before Yuri glowed slightly pink and turned her head away.
The driver stopped on the side of the road and Eunbi opened the door, promptly stepping out into the showers.
"Come on, guys!"
"I-is she... sane?" Yuri couldn't make out who said it, but she knew the entire car was thinking the same thing.
After half a minute of all eleven girls and the driver staring, horrified, at Eunbi, Yena walked to the front of the van.
"Come on. This is better than just sitting inside." Yena looked straight at Yuri and she couldn't not follow.
"Fine," she grumbled, forcefully grabbing Yena's hand and dragging her outside.
Immediately, she was met with the sensation of a bucket of ice water being dumped on her head.
Of course, there were no ice cubes and it was a little less sudden than an actual bucket of water, but it was raining a screw load of rain.
But somehow, holding Yena's arm made it better.
And then Yena was laughing this beautiful, tinkling laugh that filled the sky and made Yuri's stomach float.
And then they were running.
"Yah!" Yuri cried, giggling. "There're cars!"
"Not here!" Yena turned around, running backward, finger gunning Yuri, and Yuri was just thinking that it was so unfair that Yena could just send her into cardiac arrest like that with a smile on her face.
Annoyed with this thought, Yuri reached forward and tapped Yena's shoulder. "Tag."
Blowing a kiss, Yuri dashed back toward Eunbi.
"Hey- you... Yul!"
Yuri laughed under her breath, not looking back.
She wasn't ready when Yena grabbed her around her waist, lifting her and spinning her around. Yuri squealed. "Yah!" She but her lip to swallow her smile.
When Yena put her down, their faces were inches apart.
Yena leaned closer.
Yuri's face went nuclear.
Closer still.
Yuri closed her eyes.
Yena whispered, "You're it," and ran away cackling.
Hundreds of cars passed by, but Yuri stood still, stuck.
They had almost kissed.
They had almost kissed.
"CHOI YENA YOU'RE SO SCREWED WHEN I CATCH YOU-"
"Here we are again
And I still feel the same
You and I, we write the story of us."
Yuri was always surprised at her crush on Yena.
Maybe it was the way Yena rearranged her bangs.
Maybe it was the way her laugh was like bubbles and bells and magic and stories and so, so much love.
Maybe it was the way she kept giving Yuri that adorable, deathly half-smile.
Yuri's heart never stayed the same pace when Yena was around. Her cheeks wouldn't stay the same tint, her stomach wouldn't stay butterfly-free, her eyes couldn't not follow Yena's every movement.
Maybe it was an excessive puppy crush.
Maybe it was love.
"Sway with me like a firefly
Stay with me 'til the day I die
Write the story of us
Sway with me like a firefly
Stay with me 'til the day I die
Write the story of us."
"Can we go to Michigan someday, Eunbi unnie?"
Eunbi wrinkled her nose. "No. It's too far away."
Yuri glared holes through Eunbi's back as she walked away, because seriously?!? She was excited about running on a highway in the rain but not about going to a state far, far away from Korea?
Ugh.
Yuri scrolled through the thousands and thousands of videos of fireflies.
There was this one town called Ann Arbor and this one guy who kept posting these videos out on his neat, perfect lawn.
Yuri watched in awe as little lights popped up every now and then in the grass.
"Watcha looking at?" Yena plopped down next to Yuri.
"Michigan. Fireflies. Isn't that AWESOME?"
Yena leaned over Yuri's shoulder, making that particular part of Yuri's arm flood with tiny tingles. "Woah."
There was just something so magical about the tiny, fairy-like bugs that Yuri couldn't place.
"We should all go there someday."
"We should. And we could catch some and put them in jars."
Yuri stared at Yena in horror. "No! We can't capture them!"
"Why?" Yena cocked her head.
"Because- what..." Yuri spluttered. "That's evil! That's cruel! We can't do that!" Yuri scowled. "Imagine if someone just grabbed you around your waist and tossed you into jar."
Yena shrugged, giggling at Yuri's passion for the fireflies. "It would be cool though."
"It would most certainly NOT be cool! It would be rude and sad and-"
"Just admire the bugs, Joyul."
"Don't fail me, that's my biggest fear
Keep sailing, on waves of love, my dear."
"Eunbi. Let me get this straight." Chaeyeon shook her head to clear her thoughts. "You said no to Michigan, but you said yes to this?!?"
Chaeyeon spread her arms, gesturing to their situation.
They were in a little sailboat in the middle of the bay. Water stretched for thousands of feet on every side of them. And there was no wind.
They sat there, standing, bobbing up and down on a raft that couldn't move.
"Isn't it great?" Eunbi said excitedly.
"No," everyone else said at once, no longer caring about Eunbi's feelings when it came to these ridiculous trips.
"Come on, troops. We need higher morale! Should we sing a song?"
There was a collective groan, but Eunbi had already started singing. "Row, row, row your boat..."
After she sang it twice on her own, Chaewon begrudgingly started with "row" when Eunbi got to "gently".
Yuri joined in when Chaewon got to "gently".
And all of a sudden, they had a four part round with three girls on each part.
Yena leaned back on the side of the boat, unknowingly making her head closer to Yuri's ears so she caught a little bit of Yena's voice.
Yuri smiled at that.
Yena always sounded like an angel.
Yuri, who was on the tiller's side of the boat, propped up her legs on the edge and rested her head in Yena's lap, still singing. Without even looking down, Yena stroked her hair, running her fingers lightly through Yuri's scalp, ghosting them over her head making Yuri shiver, grinning.
IZ*ONE had become like that. Comfortable. Safe. In tune with one another.
Yuri closed her eyes.
Funny how losing one sense heightened all of the others.
The sound of the choppy waves from the motorboats became much more apparent, their splashes crisp-sounding on the side of the boat. Yuri could hear every falter in every voice, when Hyewon started laughing, most likely over something someone else had done, when someone smacked Hitomi's arm, when Minju shoved Yujin off the bench (Yuri could tell because Minju was cackling through notes and Yujin was singing passive-aggresively). Of course, no voice would be quite as beautiful without the falters. The little imperfections were what made live singing and face-to-face conversations in general so endearingly sweet.
The air definitely smelled like the sea - salty, briny, seaweed-y. Not the best smell, but relaxing all the same.
And Yena's hand carding through her hair was so much more tingly and magical.
And then Eunbi jammed the tiller into Yuri's leg.
She screamed rather unprofessionally.
The entire round fell apart as every girl rolled around laughing.
Eunbi was furiously working the tiller and telling everyone to duck as they came about.
And then, as everyone was rolling around and the tiller had never fully made it past Yuri's thighs, the wind pushed the boat over.
And they capsized.
Everyone shrieked as the boat turned on its side.
The cold was definitely electrifying - not painful, but surprising, awakening. It sharpened Yuri's thoughts. Her lungs politely demanded air as she swam out from under the sail, gulping in breaths of air through waves full of salt that left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.
Looking around for her bandmates, Yuri swam to the other side of the boat, running into Nako on the way, and they pulled each other to the girls, who were all huddled, treading in a circle, glaring at Eunbi from a distance.
Yuri swam over next to Yena.
"I swear I will murder her the second we get home," Yena mumbled.
"Take me with you."
"Nobody can make me feel anything like you, so real
You save me from falling much deeper."
Some days, it felt like she was submerged.
Like her head was under water.
Water clear enough to see the people above, but turbulent enough that she couldn't push her head above to breathe.
Some people didn't notice the small changes in her I'm-staying-up-too-late-overthinking-and-stressing-but-also-practicing behavior. Wonyoung, who was too optimistic and young and naive; Hyewon, who was spending all her time with Sakura and Hitomi these days, gaming; Chaewon and Minju, who were always chatting and plotting and dishing out feelings together in some random corner.
Yujin, who was surprisingly feeling and understanding for her age, would pat her shoulder comfortingly and tell her to "take a nap or something."
Nako always tried being a little cuter than usual, a little touchier, softly leading Yuri around and including her in things.
Chaeyeon tried to get the group to do relaxing things, or tried to get everyone to recharge together, but that never worked out well.
Eunbi tried to sit down and have a chat with her about sleeping habits and work. Which was a no. A big, fat no.
But Yena always knew exactly what to do.
Sometimes it was going out for ice cream, Yuri flopping over on Yena's shoulder, tiredly licking her cone.
Sometimes it was watching YouTube compilations of cats being scared of cucumbers.
Sometimes it was walking on the beach, sharing earbuds.
Sometimes it was just cuddling on the couch.
But whatever it was, Yena could read Yuri's mind. She could always cheer her up.
She was the only one that could stick her hand through the surface of the water.
And Yuri always grabbed her hand gladly.
"I lay down my head on your shoulder and think
If I could always be like this
I breathe in your scent and I don't dare to blink
If it could always be like this."
Whilst singing this line, Yuri felt her head instinctively tilt to her shoulder, like she had someone to lay her head on.
When she noticed, she snapped her head up.
In the next measure that was completely a rest, she shook out her head to clear her thoughts.
Focus, she told herself.
"Come on, Joyul. You know you can. Just pay attention to the music and you'll get it."
"Just listen, here we are again
Through the fire, through the rain
The roads we crossed, they built story of us."
"We didn't bring a knife, did we?" Yena yelled from across the campsite.
Meaning, she yelled to Yuri, who was about ten feet away.
"Why would you need a knife?" Yuri said, somewhat amusedly, somewhat fearfully.
"I need to kill her." Yena didn't specify who, but Yuri knew.
"Me too, honestly. And unfortunately, she would probably be the one to pack the knives if we did bring any."
Yena groaned. "Ugh. I can't wait until after dinner."
Yuri turned back to unpacking her suitcase in her tiny tent.
Just as she had unzipped the massive thing and pulled out the swimsuit components of her wardrobe, someone slapped the back of her leg.
Not like a friendly, "turn around I want to talk to you" slap, but a serious, hardcore, red-skin, "screw you" slap.
"OW! WHAT THE-" Yuri spat out a string of very, very unsavory words.
Yena sheepishly smiled. "Sorry. There was a mosquito."
Yuri glared.
"To be fair, it's dead now."
Yuri glared harder.
Yena smiled nervously.
"You just slapped the life out of my leg and now there's dead bug guts on it?"
"Yeah."
Yena gave Yuri a winning smile. Yuri squinted her eyes, pursing her lips, before turning around to grab a sweatshirt.
Slugging Yena in the shoulder, she gave an innocent smile. "We're even now."
Yena, not willing to argue, sighed and said, "Fine."
Both of them trudged over to the already glowing fire that Eunbi had made, sliding their feet cautiously across the ground as it was night and neither of them wanted to slip in pitch dark on wet grass.
Yuri settled on Yena's lap a second after Yena sat down.
"Now," Eunbi said, grinning. "Isn't this lovely?"
Yuri looked up at the bright moon, the twinkling stars, and the hazy, fluffy, grey clouds drifting across the sky. She gazed at the aspen trees with their heart-shaped leaves, all fantastic shades of deep yellow, buttery and sunny and bright, bark underneath the leaves white and gnarled with carvings of hearts and names.
She leaned back on Yena's chest and as Yena's arms encircled her, she did have to admit that it really was lovely.
The fire was hot on her shins, to the point where it was almost too hot while her arms were freezing, but Yuri hardly cared.
"Maybe we can save the assassination for another night?" Yena whispered in Yuri's ear.
"Another night," Yuri agreed.
"Here we are again
And I still feel the same
You and I, we write the story of us."
"Have you seen this?" Yuri bounded up to Yena, holding out her phone. "It's called Wattpad."
Yena squinted her eyes. "I haven't. What is it?" she said through a mouth of ramen.
"Fanfiction."
Yena spat out the ramen.
"Lovely," Yuri deadpanned as Yena continued to choke on noodles.
When Yena had recovered from essentially dying, she said, "Do you read it?"
Yuri scoffed. "Of course not. That's why I came to ask you. Do you think they have any of IZ*ONE?"
"Maybe. But we shouldn't look." Yena went back to eating her ramen.
One second passed. Two seconds. Three.
"Okay fine, let's look it up."
Yuri grinned triumphantly and handed the phone over to Yena who switched the keyboard to English and clumsily typed out 'izone'.
It autocorrected to 'ozone' at first, but they caught that eventually and switched it.
"What's all this?" Yuri scrolled through book after book with strange, hard-to-read titles and weird tags. Her basic English didn't extend to 'angst' or 'smut' or '2kim'.
She didn't even know a word could have a number in it, but hey, English was weird.
"Wait, stop there." Yena, with her much faster reading skills, clicked on one of the books.
"A... goo... guide... to... IZ*ONE... ships. What's a ship?"
"I don't know. 'Guide' sounded promising and the cover has my face on it."
Yuri gave Yena a side eye. Yena shrugged. "My face always means something good."
"That's a pretty good argument, actually."
"Thank you."
Yuri clicked on the first chapter which was called 'k' 'k' 'u' 'c' 'h' 'a' 'e' 'n'.
She didn't know if Yena was actually reading any of the words, but she couldn't so she scrolled down to the end.
There were pictures.
"Is that... Chaeyeon and Sakura?"
"I think so. Huh. Wiz*one has them all figured out."
Yuri snorted. "It's not like they're subtle."
Yena's lips curled into a smile. "No, I suppose not."
"Let's read the next chapter."
"THEY KNOW ABOUT MINJU AND CHAEWON TOO?!?"
"WHAT?!? OH MY GOD THEY HAVE TO SEE THIS! LOOK AT THAT ONE OF THEM IN THE CORNER OF THE VLIVE!"
"WAIT... OH MY... THEY EVEN KNOW ABOUT YUJIN AND WONYOUNG! YUL, THEY'RE EITHER REALLY GOOD AT OBSERVING US OR THEY'RE HIGHKEY STALKING US. OUR OWN FANBASE IS STALKING US. STALKING I SAY!"
"Man, even we didn't figure out those two teenagers for a while."
Yuri clicked on the chapter after 'a' 'n' 'n' 'y' 'e' 'o' 'n' 'g' 'z'.
"Ee... Yyyyen... yul. Yenyul."
Yuri, who had figured out the author put pictures at the bottom, flicked her finger until the pictures showed up.
"Wait." Yuri looked over at Yena, whose eyes were widened. "That's us."
Yuri looked back and gasped, doing a double take. That was them.
"Wh... how do they know these things?"
"I don't get it."
"We were so disguised! How did they guess?"
"There's no way they could see through our acting!"
Yuri, so caught up with the latest chapter of the book and chatting with Yena, didn't notice Sakura until she was in the doorway.
"What'chu lookin' at?"
"Wattpad! Unnie, you need to see this! It's you and Chae- HEY! NO! DON'T DELETE IT!"
Sakura pressed a few buttons, and suddenly, the app was gone.
"How far did you guys get?"
"Not far. Just that one book," Yena answered.
Sakura and Yena locked eyes for far longer than Yuri was comfortable with, but when they looked away, Sakura said, "Never, ever use Wattpad ever again in your life, okay?"
"Why?"
Sakura sighed. "Be lucky you didn't see the smut."
"Sway with me like a firefly
Stay with me 'til the day I die
Write the story of us
Sway with me like a firefly
Stay with me 'til the day I die
Write the story of us."
"..and 'til death do we part..."
Yuri cocked her head, watching Yena from the door frame as she mumbled something, staring at her computer.
"What's that?"
Yena yelped, jumping in a way that was much too cute for a jump and slamming her computer shut.
"HOLY- DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!"
"Isn't that what they say at weddings?"
"'Holy don't scare me like that'?"
"No. 'And 'til death do we part'."
Yena's eyes widened just a little and she smiled, which wasn't a good move as a regular, not-lying person would not have smiled at the mention of being caught reading wedding vows.
"Nope. Nopity nope nope nope. I mean, I don't really know. I haven't been to any weddings. I don't know. Why don't you hop over to Hyewon's room and play some games? I noticed you guys don't play a lot. Go play with Hyewon."
Yuri stepped forward, lifting Yena's computer screen.
"HA HA ha, no." Yena propped up her head on her arm, which was firmly secured on her laptop. "Go play games with Hyewon, Yuri."
And Yuri was promptly escorted out of the room.
"IF YOU WANTED TO MARRY ME, YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME!"
Yena made a sound like a strangled cat from inside the room.
"N-no- what- I never- no- I... GO PLAY GAMES, YURI!"
"Hold me."
"Come on, unnie. I'm good at watching them," Yuri said, the picture of confidence.
"Joyul... I really can't watch horror movies."
"Unnie. Please."
"Yul. Please."
Yuri blew an ashy-black bang from her forehead. "Unnieeeee it'll be fun."
Yena pursed her lips. "Joyul, it really won't."
"Unnie," Yuri said, stepping closer to Yena so she could place a hand at the junction between Yena's shoulder and her neck. She smirked as she felt Yena lean into her touch ever so slightly, pleased with the reaction. "I'll protect you. Okay?"
Yuri gently pushed her fingers up from Yena's ear, hand dragging through her hair. Yena sighed, pushing her head into Yuri's palm.
"Fine."
"Yes!" Yuri threw herself at Yena, arms encircling her waist.
"Woah, there," Yena laughed, snaking her arms around Yuri's back.
"This is going to be so fun!"
One and a half hours later, both girls were screaming and holding on to each other for dear life.
"JOYUL I HATE YOU!" Yena dug her fingers into Yuri's black turtleneck, muffling her screams in Yuri's similarly colored hair.
"SHUT UP!" Yuri yelled, whimpering soon after and hiding her face under Yena's arm.
Both had to turn back to see what happened next.
"No, no don't freaking go in there you stupid flipping- AH!" Yuri's voice hit octaves she didn't know she could reach.
She looked over to see that Yena was silently crying.
Lightly gasping, Yuri threw her arm over Yena's shoulders, using her other hand to turn Yena's head toward hers. She gently stroked Yena's hair, her cheeks, wiping away the remaining tears on her cheeks. She pulled Yena to her, whispering "shh"s and sweet nothings into her ear.
"I'm sorry," Yuri mumbled.
"No, it's fine," Yena hiccuped, voice hushed, blending into the music of the movie.
"No, I'm really, really sorry unn-"
"Shut up and hug me, jerk."
"Don't let go."
"Isn't this GREAT?!?"
"Eunbi unnie... is this some sort of punishment? What is this?"
"This is early-onset of a debilitating mental illness and Eunbi unnie has it," Yuri muttered under her breath.
"This is FUN! It's good to get out in the wild and do wild things!" Eunbi said, smiling like she'd won the lottery.
"Huh. Like the time we went on a road trip? In the middle of Seoul?" Chaeyeon asked, annoyed.
Nako stepped a tiny bit closer to the edge of the cliff. "Unnie, I don't think it's safe."
Their guide stepped up, smiling reassuringly, looking like she might say something before Eunbi interrupted. "It's going to be amazing and it's totally safe!"
Wonyoung paced over to where Nako was. "I don't think it's safe either..."
Eunbi was unscathed by their comments and continued with gusto. "PAIRS! Two people per zip line! I'm going to go first, and I'll probably go solo so you can all see that it's PERFECTLY safe, so rochambeau for the person that doesn't have to go. I'm sure you all WANT to go-"
Eunbi was interrupted as the girls bunched into twos and threes to rock-paper-scissors each other.
Yuri went with Wonyoung and Yujin. The air was much too tense for a small game, but if you knew the stakes were high enough to believe the tension was somewhat justified.
Look, it was death by cliff or live out the rest of your life far, far away from Kwon Eunbi in California and go incognito by becoming a coffee-bean farmer.
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
Yuri played rock. Wonyoung and Yujin played scissors. Both girls turned away, groaning.
Yuri smirked, going to play Hitomi.
Game after game, she won with rock, until finally, it was just her and Yena.
Yena smiled slyly. Yuri readied her strategy.
Strategy = rock. Every time.
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
Yuri made a fist. Yena played paper.
Yuri gaped. "No! How'd you know?!?"
Yena laughed, smug look in her eye. "You played rock every time, stupid."
"I- you-..." Yuri scowled. "Screw you."
"Love you too." Yena gave her a cute half-smile, and despite Yuri's newfound phobia of heights, she had to smile back.
It was a grumpy smile, but smile's still a smile.
"Okay! Everyone have their pairs?"
Hyewon tapped Yuri's shoulder, signaling they were the last people left without partners.
"Okay! Watch and observe, children!" Eunbi strapped her harness to the zip line with the guide's help and jumped off the edge of the cliff, whooping and hooraying.
Yuri gulped.
"So..." the guide started timidly. "Who wants to go next?"
No one moved.
The guide's smile shrunk into a grimace. "Okayyy... how about you two?"
Yuri's heart fell into her stomach. "S-sure."
She and Hyewon waited as they were strapped in, trying not to look over the edge until curiosity could wait no longer.
And for a minute, her chest fell still.
Crap. Crap.
This was going to be interesti-
She was interrupted by a hand pushing her off the cliff.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Yuri couldn't tell if she was screaming or if Hyewon was screaming or if they were both screaming or if neither of them were screaming and someone back on land was screaming but trees and rocks and Kwon Eunbi were getting closer and closer and Yuri was going to kill Eunbi or she would die first and her harness was coming to a stop and Eunbi and a new guide were unclipping her and she was falling and all of a sudden...
Arms. A puffy jacket. Lavender.
And she was drowning in fabric and familiar embraces.
"How was that?" Yena's voice cut through the chaos of her thoughts.
"Never. Never again."
"Pshh, I'm sure it was fine." Yena's arms loosened around her waist and she pulled away to get a good luck at Yuri.
Yuri pulled her back.
"Don't move."
"Okay."
"We've been scarred, broken hearts,"
"So... this is it."
"I love you guys."
"We'll call every week, right? Every day, even?"
"Letters. Addresses. We need to write them down."
"We need to meet, like, once a month at some park or something."
"I'll miss you guys so much..."
"I was so used to having just one best friend and now I have twelve more. Guys, I can't go back."
"I hate mnet."
"Fly from Japan every now and then to meet us, yeah?"
"I can't stand it. I already can't stand it and we've only been disbanded for three minutes."
"Keep in touch. I'd better have long-ass streaks with every single one of you."
"IZ*ONE forever, right? We're one."
"But they made us much stronger. You and I."
"I love you. You know that, right?"
"Sway with me like a firefly,"
And suddenly, Yuri could hear Yena's voice.
"Stay with me 'til the day I die."
"Just to date."
Funny how those three words had broken her heart and then put it together fast enough to give her cardiac arrest.
"Don't take that too seriously. I just did that as a joke, yeah?"
That little line had become nothing more than a jest, and almost always lit up something inside of Yuri, reminding her that she was more than that to Yena.
"Write the story of us."
"Yuri kept saying that she would protect me."
To be fair, she had protected Yena and Yena had protected her.
"Sway with me like a firefly,"
"For the person with the cutest smile."
Yuri's heart rate didn't slow down for days.
"Stay with me 'til the day I die."
"Her smile is seriously the cutest in the world."
It really was days until she could look up and smile at Yena without her face bursting into flames.
"Write the story of us."
"Yuri-ah~ dream of me."
She always did, but the words made her warm inside.
"Just listen, here we are again,"
"Let's go."
"Where?"
"To get married."
She never fully recovered from the way her heart stopped that day.
"Through the fire, through the rain,"
"I really like that sort of personality."
"Woah, are you two dating?"
She had hated Wonyoung in that moment, but she grew to be grateful for her friend's lack of a filter.
"The roads we crossed, they built the story of us."
"Dear Yuri-ah,"
"Here we are again,"
"It was honestly a little hard trying to move your heart instead of teasing you like I always do,"
"And I still feel the same."
"So I'll try hard to become an unnie who tries her best to move your heart more often and be more thoughtful."
"You and I, we write the story of us."
"I love you."
"Sway with me like a firefly
Stay with me 'til the day I die
Write the story of us."
Yuri opened her closed eyes, world suddenly sharp and in focus, although much blander than her memories, which were always so beautiful in comparison to the real world.
The producers clapped. "Great job, Yuri!"
"I told you you'd slay!"
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it, Yul. And have I mentioned how much I love you?"
Yuri shook her head, trying to get Yena's voice out of her mind.
Even so, she couldn't help but turn around just to make sure no one was there.
"Yena?!?"
Gasping, she saw Yena leaning in the doorway of the recording room.
"They let me in 'cause they figured you'd be happy."
Yuri couldn't breathe.
"So..." Yena stood straight, fixing her bangs and smiling bashfully. "Hi?"
*
How do u guys like optimistic-tour-guide-mom Eunbi?
Sry if there are any grammatical/spelling errors. Point them out if there are - I didn't really edit this.
Do I express my undying love for you guys enough? I feel like I don't.
Because holy screw on a stick the fact that you guys even support the crap I wrote yesterday is just so a;dlkfj;asldkfja;lsdkfj
So.
I love you guys.
Y'all are fantastic.
With hope, this oneshot is better than last time's.
WE LOVE YENYUL DRABBLESSSSSSSSSS! I mean, at least I do.
Do we have any ultimate frisbee lovers? I'm trying to see if my school has a team, and if they don't, imma try to convince them. Everything's about the spirit of the game and its just super fun and crazy and "kooky", in the words of my second-grade teacher.
There isn't even a referee. You call your own fouls.
The highest level of superiority is the "observer", who only comes to professional games.
But I'm lucky enough to know five ultimate frisbee beasts, and one is seven and one is nine.
I've been bragging about my cousins all day. They're just so cute and amazing and actually hysterical. Love you guys <3
But yeah. There's my life.
How would y'all feel about a skz oneshot book? Idk, I'm probably going to end the LOONA one soon to mostly focus on this book and I'm considering starting a skz oneshot book in its place. How many of u would read it? Do we have any skz stans here?
Trivia question: Name all seven dwarves (Sleepy is a dwarf, right? I SWEAR SLEEPY IS AN ACTUAL DWARF, RIGHT?!?!? IF NOT WE'RE MAKING HIM ONE)
Currently writing in no particular order:
- Saga of Chaekura Things: Like, I'm excited about it? I want to write it? BUT IM NOT FREAKING WRITING IT?!? Help.
- Android AU (hyekkura): all the bravado and gumption has left the chat.
- Roommate AU (kangbi ft ssamyen): [answer redacted, most likely because the author is covering up the fact that she doesn't have one]
- Arranged Marriage AU (2kimz): eventually, I say. eventually.
- Childhood enemies AU (annyeongz): could take a really long time -> WILL take a really long time
- Tattoo shop AU (kangbi): I'm going to have to write down the brilliant idea 'cause I haven't expanded on it yet and I need to remember it for l8r
- I have a midnight note and it goes like this: RED SUIT CORONATION ANNYEONGZ CAUGHT HER EYE WALKS OVER YAY WE HAVE A SAILING SHIP
Not even kidding. I would send a screenshot but my device has been taken away.
Thx for reading, love u all, and believe it or not, I'm still taking requests ;)