groupie

-ten-

"Hey!" WooBin smiles brightly as he and Suil rush toward EunChae.

"Hey." EunChae mumbles shyly, a bit taken aback by their overly friendly state in such a public place.

"Okay—so we need to grab a few things, then we'll head to the dorm." WooBin explains a bit softer once he realizes how much he'd startled her.

"Okay." EunChae nods in agreement, allowing the two boys to lead the way.

"You good?" WooBin questions quietly, Suil taking the lead and grabbing everything they need from WooBin's list.

"Yeah. I'm fine." EunChae lies, plastering a reassuring smile on her face.

"You sure? You seem off." WooBin frowns, his arm brushing against hers as they walk side by side.

"As fine as I can be." She reassures him, thankful he seems to notice despite her efforts to keep it locked away.

"I'm here if you need me." WooBin gently ruffles her hair, grinning playfully.

"It's just—" EunChae starts, but quickly shuts herself down. It's not the place to let it all out carelessly.

"We can talk later. I promise. After we cook and eat, we can talk in my room—well—my shared room, but we can kick YoungBin out." WooBin chuckles, amused by the idea of kicking the older out of his room.

EunChae nods, content with the idea of talking later. It'll give her time to think through what she wants to tell him and what may be best kept secret. While she may not be happy with Chan, she would never intentionally make him out to be an awful person. KeonHee had seemed pretty convinced that Chan was pushing her away for her sake—and after their little hotel event, she's not completely against that idea.

"So—we decided on something pretty simple, but super delicious. We're doing a seared chicken breast with a lemon sauce and some garlic butter pasta with tomatoes." WooBin explains brightly, satisfied with his choice after finding out EunChae's favorite foods.

"That sounds amazing." EunChae smiles, her anxiety dying down thanks to his distraction.

————————

"When was the last time you poked the bear?" ChangBin questions, peering in JiSung's bedroom at him.

"Poked who and what?" JiSung turns his head to acknowledge the older, his phone playing some abstract YouTube video about cheetahs in the wild.

"When was the last time you poked the bea—when did you last check on Chan?" ChangBin gives up on his clever approach and just gets to the point.

"Oh—Chan—I'd say a few hours ago. He was working on a song, so I figured I'd leave him to it." JiSung shrugs, shifting his attention back to his video.

"I saw her." ChangBin mumbles, slipping into the room and closing the door behind him.

"Saw who? What?" JiSung groans as he pauses his video to listen to ChangBin's nonsense.

"Her—I saw EunChae." ChangBin whispers harshly, annoyed with the younger for not listening the first time.

"And?" JiSung rolls onto his back, allowing his phone to slip from his hands in defeat.

"She was with those guys—out in the open like she didn't have a care in the world. She was laughing and joking, too. Meanwhile—asshole is moping around like his favorite dog died." ChangBin grumbles, frustrated by EunChae's carefree adventure.