soulmate • h.rj

23

Jaein walks onto the stage, readying herself as she hopes the performance will give her a chance to be free of her feelings, letting the sound of the music drown out her thoughts. She stands in her position, waiting for the lights, cameras and music to take action. She takes a deep breath, the music starting to flow through her ear piece as she looks up, starting the performance.

It's been three days since her birthday. Three days since she's contacted Renjun. She's been very busy with schedules, which is great because it takes her mind off the whole situation. She understand why he's mad and she would be too if her soulmate didn't tell her that he dated her group member. She wants to apologise for not telling him, but she isn't sure what state he's in, and she'd rather wait for him to be ready to talk about it. But waiting has proven to take too long.

"Please tell me what's wrong. Ask for an apology or yell at me. That'll be better than leaving me to ponder the day away." She sings into the mic, the words had never meant anything to her until a few days ago. She just wants him to say something, even if he's mad, she'd rather argue with him than not talk to him at all.

It's only been three days, he'll come around.

The performance ends, cheers filling the room as Jaein smiles for her ending pose. Despite the dark lyrics of the song, their concept was made to make it look happy, to capture the reality of toxic relationships. Jaein found it smart, and their outfits were really pretty too.

As the girls went off stage, breathing heavily, they were welcomed by cheers from their waiting room, from various staff members.

"Nice job girls!" Jisoo claps, giving the girls high fives. "You guys have a few minutes to rest before you're back out for an interview. But that was great!"

"Thank you." The girls chime as they bow to the people who helped their comeback. Jaein downs a bottle of water, still trying to catch her breath as she watches as Dowoon pass Tori a bouquet of flowers before she engulfs him in a hug.

"They're cute aren't they." Suyoung says from beside her. Jaein tries her best to shake off the envious feeling she is starting to feel. It's not like they've ever been to each others comebacks, this time shouldn't be any different.

"Where's yours?" Jaein asks her leader who points to the nurse who is talking to a stylist. "We can't be all cute like those too, people are weird when they realise you're not straight." Suyoung explains as she sits on a stylist chair, dabbing the sweat off her face. Jaein joins her by sitting in the seat beside her.

"I'm sorry. That must be tough." Jaein apologises, she thinks dating as an idol is hard enough, but dating someone of the same sex whilst being an idol is whole different level, especially in society that would easily send you hate for anything you do.

"Don't be, you can't control society I guess." She shrugs. "Didn't you date a girl at some point?" She brings up, surprising Jaein by the sudden question.

"Yeah, I did ahah." She laughs remembering it. The second person Jaein had dated was a girl name Bomi, she was super sweet but the relationship didn't last very long at all. "But I wasn't sure whether I actually liked her or if I just did it for my parents attention."

"Those are two things that should be very distinguishable." Suyoung comments.

"Should I be telling my soulmate this kind of information?" She asks, thinking about everything Renjun should know about her to avoid another situation like this.

"If you think it's important. I mean you dating a girl was a one off thing so I don't think it really matters, and he's your soulmate it's not like you'll want to see anyone else other than him." Suyoung explains, Jaein nodding along.