Lucid

Chapter 25

POV: Wonyoung
We pull up to our dorm, and I see Liz and Gaeul waiting for me. They both stand by the door, with Liz looking excited and Gaeul looking mad. Liz walks to the trunk once we stop, but Gaeul comes and knocks on my door. I wait a second, not quite ready to open the door in case she's mad. She takes initiative and opens it for me, and I decide to play off it. I step out gracefully, and offer her my hand dramatically.
"Where were you?" She asks, brushing my hand aside.
"Shopping! I got some things for you, I think you'll love them." I turn and go grab a few bags from the trunk, although Fixer- I mean, Y/N has already gotten most of them, with Liz's help. Gaeul grabs my arm and spins me around.
"Let's talk inside." She pulls me after her, and we walk aggressively to the elevator with her pulling me behind. "You should have told me before you left." Oh, yeah. I hang my head, realizing she's right about that.
"Sorry. I was going to tell you after I changed, but he got to the apartment early."
"Hold on." She blinks, suddenly reconsidering something. "Is that why the dishes were done and there was dinner made?" She asks, suddenly.
"Dinner?" She nods.
"Someone made food and left it in the fridge with a note saying it was for dinner." I gasp, but cover my mouth to be polite.
"He brought dinner?" She shakes her head.
"No, it was all made here."
"How did he make dinner? I was only gone for a few minutes." I think back, but it actually was about fifteen minutes I was out of the living room. "Did he make all the food in fifteen minutes?" I'm so confused. But just then, Liz and Y/N walk in with their arms full of bags. The elevator is already waiting for us as well, so she looks at me again with annoyance and then looks away. We all get into the elevator, and start heading up. It's silent for the ride, and once we reach our floor nothing changes. Finally, once we walk into our dorm, Liz finally speaks up.
"So, Y/N, why were you out with Wonyoung?" He shrugs.
"She asked for someone to accompany her and I wasn't busy. So I came." She nods.
"Was it boring for you?"
"Only slightly. Shopping isn't really a hobby of mine but it wasn't too bad. I mostly just offered opinions on what looked good and what didn't."
"You helped a lot though." I cut in, because he's selling himself short. He was quite helpful, and his advice let me get my thoughts in line much better.
"Well, thanks for that. I can't wait to see what you two got for us. Oh, and the others should be home soon." Moments after she says that, a knocking comes at the door, and Y/N raises an eyebrow, impressed by her good timing. He walks over, and opens the door, to see- a delivery for us. We laugh, and he takes the box and brings it back over.
"The next one should be them." Says Liz, trying to regain some face.

POV: Rei
I knock on the door, and I hear voices talking. Liz opens the door, and the first thing I see is Liz, then a large pile of bags on top of the table. Behind me, Yujin says,
"Hi. Did someone go shopping?" Liz nods.
"Wonyoung went out and got a bunch of stuff for everybody. Come look!" She walks back in, and I follow her. Sounds like Wonyoung had a lot more fun than I did today. I was at the company, and I was bored most of the time. Gaeul isn't here, though. I wonder if she went out too.
"Who did you go out with? Weren't all the managers busy?" She looks around, then smirks.
"You'll see." I don't know why she won't just tell me. I assume someone came over? I don't know why she needs to hide which person took her out shopping. But, I leave that behind to follow Yujin, who's started digging through the stack of clothes that Wonyoung laid out for her.
"That one's yours, Rei." As she says that, I feel a hand rest on my shoulder. I ignore it for a moment, but then realize a few things:
1-Gaeul is in her room
2-Wonyoung and Liz are in front of me
3- Leeseo is gone, and Yujin is standing next to me, and I see both her hands.
With this all realizes, I spin around to see Fixer- ah, Y/N, with a large grin on his face. I sigh, and place my hand on my chest. My heart had nearly burst when I realized it wasn't any of us, but it makes sense now. So that's why Liz was hiding who it was that took Wonyoung.
"Hey" He says, chuckling.
"Hey Fixer." Says Yujin. I see I'm not the only one who's having to adjust slowly.
"Hi." I say, but I say it really quietly. I guess I still feel a bit shy around him, but it makes sense. He walks around to the other side of the table, and stand casually.
"How was your day?"
"Pretty nice. We've been learning about producing and writing music now that we have some spare time." He makes an odd face.
"That sounds.... Boring. To me, at least, you probably enjoy it." Yujin nods, excitedly.
"I'm having a great time, it's really interesting." I shrug.
"The producing part isn't as interesting for me. I'm mostly enjoying the parts about writing the songs." Just then, Hyunseo pokes her head out from the other room.
"Hey Y/N. Hey, Unnies." He turns and waives back.
"Hey Leeseo." He says, smiling at her. "How long have you been here?"
"The whole time. I got back before you did, but I was busy doing homework. I'm done now." She says, walking out to the table. "Got any clothes for me?" Y/N grabs a stack and pulls them over to her, and points at them.
"These are for you." I go back to checking out my clothes, interested to see what Wonyoung got me. Yujin and Liz do the Hyunseo do the same, so it's silent except for the ruffling of clothes. "Where's Gaeul?" Y/N asks, breaking the silence after a few moments.
"Oh, she's in her room, I'm not sure what she's doing." He picks up an untouched stack of clothes.
"I'll take these to her then." Before he can do that, Wonyoung grabs his arm.
"Maybe... don't." He looks at her, a little confused.
"Why not?" I feel like he's just playing dumb here, I hope he is. Hopefully he knows why it's a bad idea.
"She's.... Not really a fan of you. Let me take them instead." Wonyoung puts a hand on the clothes Y/N is holding, but he doesn't let go.
"I'm sure it will be fine. Besides, I'd like to say hello." Wonyoung winces.
"I guess. Just don't do anything that might make her mad." He nods.
"I won't." He walks towards the master bedroom door, and knocks gently.

POV: Y/N (Fixer)
I knock on the door slowly. Obviously, I know why this is a bad idea. She doesn't like me, at all. But, I'm hoping if I keep doing small kind things she'll start to warm up to me. And we can work from there. She says,
"Enter." And I slowly open the door.
"Hi. I have clothes here, these are for you." I come up to her and place them on her bed. She's just sitting there, looking at me. I try to read her expression, but I can't quite tell. It's sort of... not anger, but close. Not hunger or intimidation, but somewhat similar. I don't know what to describe it.
"Thanks." She says. She's incredibly controlled. Obviously there's something she's hiding but I can't tell if it's anger or something else. I turn to leave, but she says, "Before you go-" I stop, and turn back to face her. "Thank you for taking care of Wonyoung." Ah. That's confusing. Wasn't she just mad at me for doing that earlier? Whatever. She doesn't seem mad now. Progress.
"I take care of my friends." I say, hoping to get my message across. Then I leave. She says something quietly after I close the door, but I don't know what it was. Let's hope it's an apology for the other day? Not likely. Combing back to the table, everyone is picking up their clothes and taking them to their rooms. Given that I have no clothes to drop off and no room to put them in, I go and take a seat on the couch. I sit there alone in an awkward silence, until I see Liz walk out of her room. She immediately turns and goes into Wonyoung's room, and I'm alone again. Then Wonyoung and Liz both walk out, and Liz goes back to her room, and Wonyoung walks into Yujin's room. Or, she tries to. As she opens the door Yujin shouts, and she immediately backs out again.
"Sorry!" She says. Apparently Yujin was changing. Wonyoung goes back to her room, and I'm alone. Still. Finally, Rei walks out in her pajamas and stands near me. I realize, they're probably going to bed, so I should leave. I stand up, and Rei immediately asks,
"Where are you going?"
"I was going to go home. I assume you all are going to bed, and I don't really have a reason to stay here while you all are sleeping."
"You can stay a little longer." She says, and Yujin walks out of her room.
"What's going on?" She asks, walking over.
"Fix- Y/N was going to leave."
"You can stay longer if you want. Let's chat." Yujin says, and sits down on the couch.
"Alright." I guess so. I sit down on the couch next to Yujin, and Rei sits on the other side of me. For some reason I'm now pinned between the two of them. Ah, but now Rei is leaning against my arm. I'm a little uncertain as to why but I'll let that slide.
"So tell us more about you!" She says, sounding oddly excited.
"What do you want to know?"

Flashback- audio only
"Thank you for taking care of Wonyoung." The softer, female voices says tenitivly.
"I take care of my friends" the deeper, gruffer voice replies, sounding reassuring, and the sound of a door shutting.
"Is that what we are?" She asks, quietly

A/N-
Be ready for next chapter

Also, these flashbacks will happen occasionally. If you don't understand just say so and I'll explain it better.

Oh and, I realized I totally messed up the timeline because this is set currently in April of 2022 but Chaeyeon was promoting Hush Rush in October. My bad. Ignore that.