yelene.....sigh.....

New Acquaintances

"Are you sure I'm allowed here??" Lene asks, scared of being caught.

"It's fineeee, I asked our manager and staff to keep it a secret, a mini tour wouldn't hurt," Courtney replies nonchalantly.

Lene looks at Citrine, she would be against this right?

Citrine shrugs. "It's too late to be stopping her now."

I guess I'm getting a personal tour of the HYBE building, Lene thinks to herself.

———

"And last, but not least, here is our practice room!!" Courtney pushes the door open and moves aside, "What do you think?"

The room was pretty average. It was definitely a lot of open space but it wasn't too big or too small. Nonetheless, it still had a cozy aspect to it.

"It's pretty nice," Lene comments.

"Right!" Courtney grabs Lene's arm to pull her further in. "Let me show you where we play the music from, it's pretty cool," she says smiling.

Citrine's phone buzzes, "Oh, the other two say they're coming over." 

"Really? Tell them we're in the practice room."

"Who's the other two?" Lene questions.

Citrine looks up from her phone, "Monica and Abram, the other members of our group."

"They're coming here..?? Right now???"

"Yup."

Oh.

"They're here faster than I thought, I guess they were already on their way or something. They said they brought gifts?" 

"Omg, I'll go out and get them." Courtney immediately runs off out of the room excited.

———

"I'm backk~" Courtney singsongs. Three figures follow behind her as she prances back into the practice room with plastic bags in hand.

Citrine spots the bags, "What's that in your hands?"

Courtney giggles, "The two bought snacks to share."

"Hey guys," a voice of a guy says.

Lene looks past Courtney and sees two girls and one guy.

"OH!" Courtney turns to look at the trio behind her. "Guys, this is Citrine's n I's childhood best friend, Lene," Courtney walks over to Lene and hugs her from the side. She raises her hand to point at each person. "That's Monica, Abram, and Gigi."

"Omg, we can introduce ourselves Yuyu," Gigi mumbles. 

Monica waves at Lene smiling, "Hey, it's nice meeting you, Yu says a lot about you when she talks about her friends and family back in America, I'm from America too."

"Actually we're all from America, the four of us have to learn Korean together, it's hell," Citrine adds sighing.

Lene nervously smiles at everyone, she likes being social but, meeting people she already heard of before but never seen once in real life was kinda weird, especially when the majority of them are moderately known celebrities.

"Like Monica said, it's nice meeting you," Abram says looking at Lene.

"I'm sure you don't recognize Gigi from the screens at all, that's cuz she's our makeup artist," Courtney looks at Gigi, "We met her in the halls by coincidence and I told her to come with us."

Courtney acts as if Lene doesn't know who Gigi is, but it's all just a facade. It's true that this is Lene's first time meeting her but, it's not the first time she's seen her. Courtney has spoken about her countless times through texts and calls with Lene, let's just say their relationship isn't strictly work.

"It's nice meeting you guys too," Lene smiles.

Courtney claps her hands, "Ok now that introductions are all over, let's practice a bit then we go out to hang out?" 

"Oh-"

"You can sit on the couch over there if you'd like, we'll probably be done after a few songs," Monica glances towards the couch and smiles.

"Ah, thank you," Lene smiles back.

Courtney leaves Lene's side and makes her way towards Abram and Citrine with Monica.

———

Lene is sitting on the couch fidgeting with her hands as she watches the four dance to one of their songs. 

"Um..would you like a cup of water?"

"Hm?" Lene's head jolts to the side. The makeup artist, Gigi, was next to her on the couch watching the four. 

"Erm, I asked if you wanted a cup of water," the girl's eyes dart between Lene's eyes and the water dispenser as she points towards it awkwardly, obviously avoiding eye contact. The girl was clearly a little bit uncomfortable or nervous but was forcing herself to open up to Lene for some reason. 

"Oh, yes please, if you don't mind." Gigi flashes a small smile and quickly walks off to get water.

Lene watches Gigi and can see that she's quite stressed. She returns with three paper cups in hand and offers one to Lene. After Lene took the cup, Gigi took her seat on the couch about a foot away from the other.

Lene decides that she'll try interacting with Gigi too, in effort to ease her anxiousness, and to maybe get a bit closer to her since they'll likely be seeing each other a lot in the near future. 

"Do you like idols?" Lene asks, trying to start a conversation.

Gigi's eyes light up a bit, "I do."

"What's your ult group?"

"My ult group's le sserafim," the corner of her lips were starting to curl up a tiny bit and her posture wasn't as stiff, "What about you? Do you have an ult group?"

"Mine's itzy, they're my first and favorite group of all time."

"Oh? Itzy? Who's your bias?"

Lene gets a bit giddy just thinking about her, "My bias is Yeji." 

"That's nice, do you like any other groups?"

As the other four practice away, the two on the couch get to know each other and start getting more comfortable around each other.

———

"Whew, we're finally done," Monica walks over to the water dispenser and grabs a few cups.

Citrine and Abram walk together to their own bags set next to each other, for some reason they seem awfully close, in a none platonic way. Lene suspects something's up but she brushes it off as her imagination. 

Courtney approaches the couch by herself, "What's your opinion, did we do good?" 

"Mmmmm, I think you could do better," Lene replies teasingly.

"Ay..I'd like to see you do better," Courtney lightly kicks Lene's leg.

Lene laughs, "Omg don't touch me, you're sweaty."

Gigi stands up and grabs the third cup of water on a nearby desk she got earlier, "Here Yuyu," she offers it to Courtney.

"Aw you didn't have to."

"Just drink it," Gigi playfully rolls her eyes and Courtney lets out a light giggle.

For some reason Lene feels like a hardcore third-wheeler right now, even if there aren't any couples nearby..yet.