A buzz.
Persistent.
Muffled.
---
White sheets.
Fluffy pillows.
The kind of bed that held you rather than just supported you.
Soft in every direction.
---
Eun Byol's eyes opened slowly.
Brown hair across most of her face.
She moved it away.
Her hazel green eyes adjusting to the light.
---
The buzzing again.
She reached under the pillow.
Found the phone there.
Pulled it out.
The screen bright against the soft morning.
Park Han-Soo.
Her manager.
Calling.
---
She sat up fast.
---
The dance studio.
Large space.
Mirrors on every wall catching everything that moved in front of them.
The floor smooth.
The room humming with the particular quiet of a space meant for sound and movement and currently holding neither.
---
She danced alone.
Headphones in.
The music hers for this hour.
Moving the way she wanted to move.
Not the choreography.
Not the version they'd agreed on in meetings with too many people in them.
Just her own version.
The one that lived inside the music before anyone else got to it.
---
A tap on her shoulder.
---
She turned.
---
Choi Ara.
Tall.
Petite somehow despite the height.
Short hair pink and black.
Eyes finding her immediately.
Smiling before she'd finished turning.
---
And beside her.
Han Seo-rin.
Black hair.
Dark eyes.
Looking at her the way she always looked at her.
Like she already knew what she was going to say before she said it.
---
"Why are you always an hour early."
Not really a question.
---
Eun Byol looked at them.
Smiled.
"I just wanted an hour to dance on my own."
A breath.
"The way I want to. Before we start."
---
They looked at each other.
Then back at her.
Then laughed.
The sound of it filling the studio.
Finding the mirrors.
Coming back at all of them at once.
---
"You'll never change."
---
Their faces.
Holding that laugh.
That specific warmth of people who know you well enough to predict you and love you anyway.
---
Then it faded.
---
Slowly.
The studio going gray at the edges first.
Then darker.
The mirrors losing their light.
The floor losing its shine.
The music stopping.
---
Until there was only the ceiling above her.
Silver and gray.
The underside of a metal bunk.
---
Cold.
Close.
Ha Joon's weight pressing the slats down slightly.
---
She lay there.
Eyes open.
Letting the dream finish leaving.
---
Ha Joon's voice came from above.
Quiet.
Like he'd been awake for a while.
---
"Another day of getting our asses handed to us."
A pause.
"At some point you'd think she'd run out of new ways to break you."
Another pause.
"She never does."
---
Silence.
---
"I don't even know what to do anymore."
His voice finding something looser now.
Something that came out when the guard was down.
"I'm still hungry."
A breath.
"And I really want to listen to music."
---
A pause.
Smaller.
---
"Actually."
He said it carefully.
Like he knew he was about to say something wrong.
"Why won't you sing something."
---
Eun Byol's eyes sharpened at the ceiling.
---
"A song."
Her voice came up fast.
Angry.
Real angry.
Not performance.
"What the hell are you talking about."
She sat up slightly.
"Did you forget what happened today."
Her voice getting louder.
"You kicked me."
A breath.
"And not just today — why did you go the opposite direction. What is wrong with you."
She stopped.
Started again.
"Do you take any of this seriously. I can't just — we have so much riding on this. You have so much riding on this."
---
Silence.
---
Then.
From above.
Ha Joon's voice.
Quiet.
Cracked at the edges.
His body shifting slightly.
The frame trembling once.
Something in the sound of him that hadn't been there a moment ago.
---
"I'm sorry."
A pause.
"I didn't know you felt this way."
Another pause.
"I'll be more serious."
He stopped.
Started again slower.
"Maybe we need signals. Eye signals. Something so we can read each other better in there."
His voice trying to find solid ground.
"What do you think."
---
Silence.
---
The moisture in the room settling on his neck.
Slow.
Cold.
His eyes wide in the dark above.
His heartbeat louder than it should be.
Waiting.
---
Her voice came.
Flat.
Final.
"No."
A pause.
"Just forget it."
A breath.
"Go to sleep."
---
A beat.
---
"Good night, Ha Joon."
---
She turned.
Pulled the blanket up over her face.
Gone.
---
Ha Joon lay still.
The ceiling above him close.
The dark stain in the corner.
Still there.
---
"Good night, Eun Byol."
---
Quiet.
---
His face in the dark.
Something moving through it slowly.
Not anger.
Not confusion.
Just sorrow.
Sitting in his features the way it sits.
Without asking.
Without announcing itself.
Just there.
---
The facility breathed around them.
Old and quiet and still standing.