MY BRIGHTEST STAR

chapter 79: together

"Ya! Jieun-noona!" Hoseok gasped as he almost dropped an entire carton of bottles of water onto the floor. "Why are your eyes so puffy?"

Jieun covered her eyes with her sweater paws. "They're not, don't say such ridiculous things-"

"No, they really are-"

And Jieun knew, for a fact, how puffy her eyes were. She had cried while talking to Jungkook on the phone last night, coupled with the consumption of slightly saltier food in Amsterdam, her eye bags had swelled to twice their usual size. Even though the former reason had a greater part to play, but there was no way Jieun would admit that.

"Ah, I had ramen late last night, okay?" Jieun put on her sunglasses quickly. "It'll be gone once we reach the filming site later, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Eh..." Hoseok frowned. "Why didn't you call me if you were having ramen? Noona, you've been pushing me away lately ever since you and Jeon sajang-nim started-"

Jieun covered Hoseok's mouth before he could say anymore. "Shut up, Jung Hoseok."

Hoseok smiled sheepishly.

"Oh?" Chungha pointed at Chaeyoung as she approached them at the hotel lobby, where everyone had gathered. "Chaeyoung-ah, you too? Your eyes are also look swollen today?"

Chaeyoung hurriedly put on her sunglasses as well. "I had ramen late last night."

"Oh?" Hoseok piped in. "Jieun-noona also said she had ramen late last night."

Hoseok and Chungha exchanged surprised looks.

"Oh!" Chungha gasped. "Don't tell me..."

"The two of you..." Hoseok covered his mouth. "Without us..."

"Had a ramen party together?!"

Jieun and Chaeyoung exchanged confused gazes.

"Ah- yeah," Jieun slipped an arm around Chaeyoung's shoulder. "We had some ramen and a heart to heart talk super late last night, that's why we're both swelling up like that."

It took Chaeyoung three whole seconds to register what Jieun was doing and three more seconds to think of a response to play along.

"Ah, yeah!" Chaeyoung slung her arm around Jieun's shoulder as well. "Jieun-unnie and I had ramen late last night. Sorry, guys, it was kind of a spontaneous thing-"

"No, no, no!" Chungha laughed as she nudged Hoseok in the stomach. "Not at all! To see y'all get along so well... we're super happy too. Aren't we?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Hoseok let out an awkward laugh. "Of course, of course! Y'all go ahead, you don't have to invite the two of us out in the future either. Chungha-ssi, let's go! Remember Kim gamdong-nim said he wanted to talk to us?"

"Huh?" Chungha took three seconds. "Oh! Right!"

Hoseok and Chungha skipped off.

"Why-" Jieun glanced at Chaeyoung once the two were gone. "Did you cry too?"

"Just had some really emo thoughts last night," Chaeyoung shrugged it off. "It's nothing."

"I see."

"You?"

"Ah." Of course Jieun couldn't tell her she was crying because she missed Jungkook and his words made her cry. "Same, emo thoughts, I guess."

"Jieun-ssi... hold up!" Jimin approached the two of them, all decked out in his usual flashy clothes. "What's going on? Why are you two both wearing sunglasses?"