Featuring You ▷II YEJISU

27

Jisu isn't sure how she ended up here.

One thing she does remember is shoving her manager away, snapping that she could handle herself. She hailed a cab, threw a crumpled fifty dollar bill at the driver, and stumbled onto the scorching pavement. The "Tack Room Tavern" sign looms over her.

The dress she wore for the afterparty at La Quinta Brewing clings uncomfortably to her sweat-drenched skin. She'd miscalculated—not only the California heat, but everything. The alcohol, the exhaustion, the weight of the night. It's all closing in on her, thick as the humid air.

Bass-heavy music pulses around her, synchronizing with the pounding in her head, while LED lights flash in dizzying patterns. Jisu squints at the crowd clustered outside the bar. Their faces blurred and their voices overlapped in raucous laughter—none of it makes sense in her hazy state. Her attention drifts to the bar's entrance, a tug deep inside her gut telling this is the way to follow.

Jisu pushes through the tables, head ducked low, hoping not to be recognized. She can't afford another scandal, not now. She could've stayed in her hotel room and avoided this all entirely. She could've left the mess with Yeji buried, untouched. But that no longer felt like a viable option. The wounds needed to be reopened, and the mess had to be dug back to the surface.

The lighting inside the bar hits her like a fist, not just disorienting but also suffocating. The mix of stale alcohol, sweat, smoke, and regret hangs heavy above her. Her body feels like it's screaming at her to stop, to rest, to breathe, but she presses on, scanning the room with a desperation she can't quite tame.

And then she sees it—a flash of red, bold and unmistakable. It's Chaeryeong.

Her heart falters, her throat tightens. Yeji's here for sure.

Jisu swears under her breath, the reality of the situation catching up to her. Panic claws at her chest. Alcohol had infiltrated her thoughts and clouded her judgments. Truth is she couldn't face Yeji, not with guilt hanging around her neck like an anchor.

So she tries to vanish and melt into the walls, praying none of Yeji's friends catch sight of her. God, that would make this already awkward moment so much worse.

The she gets a genius idea: she'll just have to hide in the bathroom. Stumbling toward her destination, Jisu reaches the end of a dark, ominous corridor. The symbols on the door sign blur as her vision falters. Her mind races to slow her down yet her body propels her forward. She swings the door open—and freezes.

There she is.

Yeji.

Everything sharpens. The world narrows to one person—the familiar figure cloaked in sleek black, with her hair cascading down like ink. As Yeji walks past, her arm brushes against Jisu's skin. It's electrifying.

Jisu's heart slams against her ribs. Yeji halts, only a step away, and turns. Recognition dawns in her eyes, widening in disbelief. For a moment, the icy facade fractures, like glass catching the light.

"What are you doing h—" Yeji starts, words slurred, draped with liquor and something more. But her sentence hangs in the air.

In a reckless surge, Jisu closes the distance. She grabs Yeji by the collar and crashes her lips against hers. The kiss is fire and chaos—raw, impulsive, uncontrollable.

The rockstar gasps, her startled yelp is swallowed between them. Her hands instinctively try shoving Jisu, but the moment their lips meet, her resistance melts and something ancient ignites.

Years of tension erupts to the surface. The emotions left festering between them explode in the space of a heartbeat.

Yeji's grip loosens, and instead of pushing Jisu away, she pulls her impossibly closer, like she'd want their bodies to merge into one. Fused together as if they've always belonged this way.