The Siren's Song

Chapter 31-worries and concerns

TAE POV:

There's no hesitation as I run after Kookie and (Y/N), fear and worry causing my stomach to twist unpleasantly, the sight of her clammy pale figure rushing out of the room still engrained into my mind and behind me I hear another set of footsteps follow. I round the corner to see (Y/N) disappearing into the female changing rooms, door flying shut behind her.

Kookie dithers outside it for a moment, debating whether or not to go in but seeing as the studio is empty apart from our group- he follows, shyness and trepidation is wiped away to be replaced with determination and worry- overpowering the hesitance easily.

I follow behind, Jiminie hot on my heels and yet we find ourselves uselessly coming to a stop when it's clear that she's locked herself in one of the large toilet, the sound of heaving being heard. My heart flips with empathy, for how ill she's been but has been hiding it, pushing it aside for the sake of dancing. And I have a strong feeling that she pushed through with it because Jimin had posed the question initially, and because of that she'd been unwilling to deny him or the others of dancing together.

There's worry on their faces as we helplessly stand outside, desperately wanting to be there for her, to rub her back and hold back her hair as she's ill; giving her the tiniest sort of comfort when she was clearly feeling so down. And yet we couldn't do that, not with the door closed.

And as Kookie dithers with a lost look, I step forward to rap my knuckles against the door.

"(Y/N) let me in." I call.

But there's no response, even as she's stopped heaving for now, there's just awful silence- silence that makes me fear whether she's even conscious inside.

That worry only grows when I continue to call for her and there's no response- only a silence that stretches out.

And just as Kookie voices a fearful '(Y/N)', there's the sound of her being sick again, sounds that make me feel useless as Jiminie comes to stand beside me, a frown on his face as he stares at the door, as if somehow the door will melt away if he continues to gaze at it.

It's long minutes afterwards that there's the sound of the flush, then water and then the door unlocking, being pulled back to reveal a chalky looking (Y/N) who's leaning heavily onto the side of the doorframe, clutching at it as sweat beads on her face. She looks even worse now and I'm mentally kicking myself for not having pushed further before they'd even begun dancing, angry that none of us had picked up on the fact she wasn't fully recovered and she'd been dancing intensely- I knew just how hard they pushed themselves, physically saw it and could attest to it.

"Aigoo...you should've stopped if you were ill!" Jiminie says, moving forward to get closer to the physically weak and drained looking girl.

Kookie's face is a mixture of disappointment and worry but that doesn't prepare me for the way he opens his mouth to not ask her if she's fine but to scold her instead.

"Why on earth were you pushing yourself through that? Your first priority should be and needs to be you, then anything else!" he exclaims but contradicting the slight raise in his reprimanding volume is that he places his hands on her shoulders- the full black sleeved arms curving in slightly when he leads her forward to sit down on a bench.

"There's no way you're continuing dance like that." He states firmly.

And the look in his eyes he's shooting her, the firmness to his words and the tightness to his lips are clear indicators of how worried he really is, and the fact that he's chiding her is just proof of how close their friendship has grown.

"Let's get her back to the studio. I'll give Mi-sun a call so she knows." Jiminie states, eyes soft and concerned as he drops in front of her, looking up at her.