It was the beginning of June and Joy was back in Seoul.
Excited, scared but hopeful about her future.
She found a place to stay there for a couple of days before she goes to her auditions. If she passes, the company has readily prepared her a dorm room where she will stay for further training.
And if I don't pass, it's okay, life's not going anywhere, I can do whatever I want whenever I want, I just need to be brave! - Joy thought to herself, prepping herself for what was to come.
It was a sunny day in Seoul, however, a random dark cloud was hanging around the city, making it seem like it was going to rain, or at least give a brief shower to the city.
And all of a sudden, it did rain, just as Joy was heading out to her possible future company's building and headquarters.
Unluckily for Joy, she was caught in the middle of that rainstorm without an umbrella because she thought she would avoid the cloud in time. Luckily for Joy, however, was the fact that she headed out to the company way earlier than needed due to her excitement for the audition and she had plenty of time to wait out the storm.
Okay, I don't want to get wet in this storm, I better find someplace safe! - and with that in mind, Joy ran to the nearest building's entrance and there she found a bit of shelter.
Soo.... Let me check the time... Okay, I'm good, I have enough time before the audition starts so I can chill here for a while.
And so Joy waited. And then waited some more. And then some more.
She still wasn't nervous because she knew that the weather would calm down eventually, and even if it didn't, she would run for it and hope for the best if it was really necessary.
Suddenly, she turned around because she heard a noise from the inside of the building. A person was coming out of the building. Joy wouldn't usually care about who was coming out, but she did sort of recognize the person from the blurred-glass behind the door that was about to be opened.
Nah, I'm just seeing things, it's definitely not- OH shit, it's Chaewon!
The redhead girl stood out of the building with an umbrella in her hand and was stunned to see Joy in front of her, her eyes widening.
"Oh!" she barely let out.
"Hey" Joy replied with a shy and embarrassed smile.
"Hey" she replied back with a neutral tone in her voice.
"I... I didn't know you lived here" Joy commented almost immediately, calling back to an earlier conversation of theirs where she tried to figure out where Chaewon lived, but kinda gave up after Chaewon was done with her explanation that was, at least to Joy, leading nowhere. It was a small street that was usually very hard to find if you're not familiar with that neighborhood.
"Yeah, I do live here... What are you... doing here?" Chaewon asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
"I... I came back to Seoul"
"You went away from Seoul?" Chaewon was surprised.
"Yeah... I mean, I guess you don't talk too much with Sungmin and the others anymore so you didn't hear-" Joy assumed it was known to all the former members of her friend-group where she was, however, Chaewon interrupted her, agitated:
"Do you even talk to him?"
Joy stood there in silence. She had to admit, she wasn't in contact with any of her former friends. She distanced herself from them as soon as she went to Jeju island because she thought it would be easier to get her life back together. And now she was facing Chaewon's question.
"Yeah, I don't... I kinda lost contact with everyone. I'm back now and I'm starting things over-" Joy started to explain but was interrupted again.
"Yeah, I have to go." Chaewon spoke while opening her umbrella. Joy was barely able to shout out lightly:
"Wait! Please, wait, Chaewon.... if you can!"
Chaewon was suspicious at first, but then closed her umbrella and faced Joy.
"I... wanted to apologize. For treating you badly. You did not deserve it. I was in a bad place when you and I went on our date and afterwards I generally treated you like I didn't know you... And I'm sorry. I should've been more forward with you and tell you what I wanted and what I didn't want with you. Like I said, I was in a bad place back then and I wasn't handling things in my life in a healthy way. That is not an excuse for my behavior, but... this is an apology." Joy spoke sincerely and from the heart, without stuttering, while bravely looking at Chaewon.
Chaewon then just looked at the ground and shuffled her feet awkwardly. She then looked at Joy and asked:
"Is... Is that all?"
"Yeah... I think you should know this - you didn't do anything wrong, I did. But... To be fair to you, what you do with my apology is your thing." Joy nodded her head at the end of that sentence and smiled sheepishly.
Chaewon smiled back. She was silent for a moment before she said: "I forgive you. Thank you for the apology" she calmly replied.
They then stood there for a couple of seconds, looking at each other, and at this point they started to laugh at each other.
"So... Can I ask with whom you're hanging out now?" Joy asked after the laughing ended.
"Mostly with Chaeyeon and Sungmin"
"Oh, that's nice that you're still hanging out together"
"Yeah" Chaewon replied with a smile.
"What about Yeri.... And Yena and Sakura?" Joy quickly added.
"You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Yena and Sakura broke up. Kind of. They're mostly fucking each other when they get drunk, but they're not together anymore... and they don't hang out with us anymore, for some reason I guess..."
"Wait, what about Yeri?" Joy wanted to know. Even though she was trying to get over Yeri, she still wanted to know if she was alright.
"Yeah..." Chaewon scratched the back of her head. "Nobody knows where she is right now..."
"What?!" Joy couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"I mean... She hasn't contacted any of us for the last... I don't even know, couple of months, maybe? The last we heard from her was when she dropped off Yena and Sakura that night when they were fighting and she drove off with you... We thought you two started hanging out outside of our group, ignoring us completely... That's why I didn't know you were outside of Seoul. Nobody actually knew anything about where you two were, now that I think about it. We just thought you ignored us, and so we ignored you all the same." Chaewon admitted.
"Wait, but what about social media? She must've posted things there, right? She usually posts stuff all the time, like when we used to go out and whatnot" Joy was getting more and more invested in this story and she really wanted to know what happened to Yeri.
"Nope. Nothing."
"Sooo... For all you know, she could be dead?" Joy managed to ask that question with a lump in her throat. She was getting worried.
"I mean... Like I said, we thought you just stopped hanging out with us..." Chaewon shrugged her shoulders.
Joy stood there for a couple of seconds.
Should I call the police? What should I do? But that could make things complicated considering her father works at the police... Or maybe it could make it easier... Damn, this is so much information to take in....
"Shouldn't we like, do something?" Joy asked.
"I mean... Don't get me wrong, but I never really hung out with her and... personally, I don't care so..." Chaewon again just shrugged her shoulders.
Joy stood there in silence for a couple of seconds before Chaewon spoke:
"Anyway, I need to be heading out, do you want come with me? I have an umbrella and if we're going in the same direction, you can be under it if you want to."
"Sure.... sure." Joy replied while still thinking about Yeri. She was very distracted by this news.
They walked under the umbrella silently in the same direction for a while and Joy couldn't stop thinking about Yeri the entire time. Chaewon didn't mind the silence.
What should I do? I mean, I should definitely alert someone... right?
And like that, the rain stopped suddenly, the same way it started.
"Oh, okay, won't be needing this for now" Chaewon spoke and closed the umbrella. "Anyway, I'm heading out this way.... So, yeah, I guess I'll be seeing you around?"
"Yeah... yeah... " Joy replied distracted. "Sorry, I'm still thinking about this."
"Welp.. Okay... Bye!" Chaewon replied, waved and then just went her own way.
Joy stood there for a while and then decided to walk to clear her mind and think about what just had happened.
This... Can I even think about this now that I'm trying to turn over a new leaf in my life? What am I supposed to do now? - She thought to herself as she was nearing the music company's building. She just needed to pass the main bus terminal and a couple of streets after that and she would be there. And so, Joy continued walking.