04. Forgiveness ⊹˚₊

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THE DOOR TO (G)IDLE'S dressing room had opened ever so slightly, a girls head poking out. It wasn't Yuqi, but another member that Haojing didn't recognise. She was around the same height as her and had long, red hair. Her bangs barely reached her eyelashes, which were paired with smokey eye makeup.

"Hello? Haojing-ssi? This is a surprise, do you need something?" She opens the door up a little further.

"A-ah, hello." She says nervously as she bows politely, "I was, um, looking for Yuqi?" Haojing says and the girl's eyes widen slightly in surprise of the pronunciation of her member's name.

She nods with a small smile, "I see. Woogi-ah! Haojing-ssi is looking for you." She turns back to the younger girl, "It was nice meeting you, Haojing-ssi. I'm Minnie." She bows slightly, but was nudged out of the way a second after.

Now that Haojing knows who Woogi is, her heart can't help but beat a little faster. Yuqi stares at her for a moment before bowing politely, Haojing following suit.

"Haojing." She says eventually, still staring at her face.

Haojing stares back, "Yuqi."

They stand there, staring at each other in silence, for a moment. Yuqi quickly excuses herself from the dressing room, where her members are, and walks out of the door, closing it behind her.

It unnerves Haojing slightly that Yuqi has done nothing but stare at her. "Follow me." Yuqi says as she waves her hand, gesturing to follow her. Haojing ignores all of the staff's glances at the duo as they roam the halls.

Yuqi leads them to a secluded spot in the building. It's next to a staircase and a few vending machines. The scene is mostly all white with huge windows that reveal the matching snow-covered grass.

Yuqi clears her throat quietly as she sits on the staircase, "You're taller than me now." She says as she picks at her perfect nails, not looking at Haojing's face for once.

The younger girl can't help but smile, "Yeah. And believe it or not, i've also become less strict." She lets out a small giggle, remembering how she had usually been the one to tell Yuqi off when they were younger.

"That's what additional years of maturity does to you." She says softly as she gets up from the staircase and slips a coin into the vending machine, "Would you like something?" She asks, looking at Haojing, who was leaned against the white wall.

She purses her lips and nods, walking over to the vending machine and standing next to the brunette. "Strawberry milk sounds good."

Yuqi, slightly startled by hearing the girl's voice so close and clearly, presses the button for strawberry milk. She also gets one for herself and sits back down on the staircase, "So... How's li-"

"What do you want, Yuqi?" The taller girl asks, slightly annoyed for multiple reasons. Yuqi flinches ever so slightly and looks at her. She looks away again and looks at the annoyingly clean floor.

At first, Haojing thought she wasn't going to answer, but then she eventually spoke up, "Really..." She pauses for a moment, most likely gathering all of her thoughts and courage, "I wanted to firstly, apologise for never contacting you... Not like you did either, though."

She looks at the girl as she continues, "My plan was to hopefully... Hopefully, make up after i apologised." She explains as her hurt eyes blink slowly.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly again, "Haojing... I'm sorry. I hope you'll forgive me." She rests her chin in her hands, looking up at the younger girl.

Haojing stares at the now upset girl, furrowing her eyebrows and lowering her head. She slowly walks towards the staircase and sits next to the short-haired. She nudges her shoulder, forcing her to look at her.

Haojing looks away, averting her eyes to the wall infront of them. "I should probably apologise too. Like you mentioned earlier, i never got in touch with you all these years, either. Don't get me wrong, i tried. But all access to your company was restriced for me."

She slowly looked at Yuqi, who was already looking at her, "You know, i never knew you debuted. This morning, when you interviewed me and the girls, i never recognised you. Well, i recognised your face and voice, but it wasn't enough. It's been four years, you know?" She chuckled at herself, "It only clicked after Ning told me you were from Beijing - which was after the interview." She explained with a small smile, "I'm happy for you."

Yuqi looked away, hiding her face from Haojing's sight. She brought a hand to her face and sniffled. Haojing's senses heightened and she became worried, forcing Yuqi to look at her by gently touching her chin.

The sight made her heart ache. Did i say something wrong? Why would she be crying? Please tell me it's happy tears!!

Yuqi's eyebrows were furrowed and her cheeks were stained in tears. Thank god she had wiped off her stage makeup and replaced it with a light one earlier. "Do you want to tell me why you're crying?" Haojing said softly, being weary of any passerby's (there has been none so far).

Yuqi just wrapped Haojing in a hug, her wet-stained face in the younger girl's shoulder. She simply draped her arms around the older girl, allowing her to calm down a little.

Eventually, after a few sniffles, Yuqi's voice came out muffled. But Haojing still understood. "I missed you, Ah-Jing." She spoke in Mandarin which made the raven-haired girl smile.

They sat there for another fifteen minutes, while speaking in their native language, talking about their lives as trainees - catching up on what they would have missed. Of course there was everything to learn about them. It has been four years, afterall.

After a small chat, they forgot that they needed to leave the building soon. So, they decided to really exchange numbers this time and catch up properly next time.

"Yuqi-ah." The taller called and the said girl looked at her, waiting for what she was going to tell her. "I forgive you." She paused, hesitant but hopeful, "Do you forgive me?"

Yuqi raised a brow and chuckled at her quietly, "Obviously, shagua." She playfully rolled her eyes as Haojing's eyebrows raise in amusement.

Her lips curl into a mockery smile, her eyebrows still raised, "Oh, is that so? Going straight into the mean names, now, are we?" She pretends to be annoyed, poking the brunette in the sides with her index fingers.

The smaller girl squirms and slightly screeches, making Haojing cover hear ears and look at Yuqi, astonished. "Yuqi-ah... Never did i think it would be this fun to poke you." She laughs loudly as she continues to poke her stomach and sides.

" She laughs loudly as she continues to poke her stomach and sides

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WRITTEN 15/06/24
PUBLISHED 17/06/24

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