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Yuqi and Minnie just scored a deal of their life: 40 songs in 4 months, with a chance of renewal if they do well. It pays the bills and, most importantly, they can set their roots in the industry.
And getting late at the first meeting is just an accident — Yuqi couldn’t find her lucky boxers, Minnie in pants and a bra with half-styled hair wasn’t much of a help, they also missed a bus (you want a starving artist to take a taxi?).
Their irritated mentor – and a producer who will be there during the whole process like a police officer, watching closely – recaps all conditions in nitty-gritty, like what will happen if they breach the contract and blah blah blah. They stopped listening in the middle, not out of unseriousness (okay, 50/50 on that) but because the movement of Jeon Soyeon’s lips is simply more interesting.
Bags under the eyes, slight clenches of fist, subtitle aroma of coffee on her breath – everything about her is captivating. They both try not to whimper when the strap of her top slides down the length of her arm and she pulls it back with too much force. Minnie wants to take a bite, Yuqi wants to swallow her whole.
In the back of her mind, Minnie is worried about how fast Yuqi is infatuated with a woman beca- forget it, Soyeon blowing her bangs away brings her attention back to the thing of real importance.
And Yuqi actually isn’t worried about anything. Soyeon sounds a little bit mean, but it’s no brainer: all women who look like they came out from face moisturizer ad deserve a free pass to bully her. And the jawline? M’am, here is my lunch money, my grandma’s antique ring. Want my soul too?
“Questions?” Soyeon puts her glasses down, finally stops fidgeting countless papers on the table and looks at them with her resting bitch-face.
Blond one in basketball jersey waters her lips, “none, captain. Oh, actually – where is the canteen?”
Sigh, the longest 4 months in my life.
“Second floor, first left door from the elevator. Anything else?”
“Yeah! Well, no, it’s not really a question, just wanted to say we have our producer tag,” Black haired woman in a band hoodie quickly opens the audio file on her phone, clicks at the triangle and sultry voice says Sawadeehao over the synth bassline. They had it for almost 6 years now -- in the first ever created bits on soundcloud, then on collaborations with other underdogs and on some idol bands eps later. It’s a detail, but an important one to remember.
Soyeon pinches the bridge of her nose, not digging the sentimatics of it all. “Okay. Is it everything?”
Both women jump on their feet, outstretching hands to shake, ‘thank you’s’ and ‘we will do good’s’ are thrown around; Soyeon isn’t sure who’s hand she should be taking first.
6
“Stop doing that.”
“Huh?”
“Not you.”
It’s friday and Soyeon spent the whole day with Yuqi and Minnie. They have a fast pace, so she doesn’t get mad at them too often; yeah, being late to the first ever meeting with your technically-boss aka supervisor is an ultimate imbecile move, but they redeemed themself quickly. Their stuff is… catchy. Thought provoking, sometimes.
So yeah, the pair is okay. Writing with them won’t be as agonizing as she imagined.
It’s not to say that she isn’t distracted by Minnie’s extremely long, manicured fingers spinning a pen. She is, so after 2 hours 13 minutes of trying to wait it out Soyeon lashed out.
“Oh, sorry,” Minnie finally puts the pen down.
But.
Soyeon still can’t fully focus attention on the arrangement. The mixing is sloppy, and she wanted to write an enquiry to the company to buy a new mouse – she definitely has some work to do before going home. But. She simply can’t.
Soyeon is overly conscious of every little action woman on her right does, from stretching her wrist and cracking knuckles to the way Minnie types with two hands and adjusts her beanie.
Is it about the fact that she’s not used to working with other people, having them in her personal space? Is that what a “lone wolf” life does to your mind and social synergy?
She can’t even groan out of frustration, because they will ask and she won’t answer, doesn’t know how.
She rubs her knees before raising, “20 minutes break. Let’s go, I’ll buy you something to eat,” that doesn’t involve chopsticks (how would Minnie’s fingers look holding them?)
Soyeon swears Yuqi pushed Minnie when they both stood up, and got punched back. She won’t look back to verify, though, or they would be able to see her smirk.
14
Yuqi’s voice on demos sounds… good. It’s unique, and it’s a great shame that it won’t be in the finished product. Because honestly, it adds a whole lot to the colors of the instrumentals she creates, makes the combo worth listening to.
Soyeon likes her vocal tone, doesn’t even doubt that Yuqi will release more solo projects later. She is a producer first, a weakling second.
Because in day-to-day life, Soyeon admits that Yuqi’s voice is also weirdly, unfittingly ardent. Deep, raspy, commanding her attention without even carrying a valuable message. No, really, Yuqi says a whole bunch of dumb things, but Soyeon always hears and listens.
She knows so many little facts about the girl thanks to that. She has a list in her notebook, paired with a doodle of a dog, — on the page next to Thursday's meeting agenda.
- She’s from Beijing
- Her dad is a
doctor,builder,engineer, magician (?) - She lies about her dad’s profession
- Staff at Haidilao knows her name and usual order
- They own a flat with Minnie
- She lied in resume about knowing LeBron personally
- She doesn’t have a corgi despite the tattoo on her right shoulder
- She won a signed by tupac t-shirt in a lucky baseball bet
It goes on and on, Soyeon writes in at least two things every working day, just to structurize her thought train. Not really a lot of difference from conspecting at the lecture, it’s justification enough for Soyeon.
Yuqi’s voice is just really loud and makes the whole room vibrate with it, and Soyeon doesn’t think about it. At all.
She just hears it as a voice-over when she reads something. Nothing to be concerned about.
Soyeon just wishes Yuqi called her unnie once, just to taste it.
18
“Seo Soojin. Soojin, Song Yuqi,”
“Hey!” handshake.
“Soojin, Nicha Yontararak,”
“I actually go by Minnie. It’s my producer's gimmick,” it is not.
Seo Soojin is one of the singers under the label, some of the songs they were hired for will be hers. It’s the highest they ever got – she fills venues of adoring people, paparazzi try to get a glimpse of her leaving the company building, locals ask for her autographs to keep, not sell. Yuqi tries not to vibrate out of excitement, because the woman isn’t just established, she’s well-known.
Seo Soojin is Soyeon’s creation, the debut album she wrote for her was a hit, got them both status of a “next big thing”. Message clear, written with blood, sweat and tears: watch out, institutions, 20 years old Jeon Soyeon has her own star and she will light up more! Not losing momentum is hardest when expectations are over the roof, but Soojin gripped her spotlight with all the charisma she has; Minnie more than respects that.
Seo Soojin is also tall, polite and has a gentle-giant aura around her. Soyeon knew she was the one when she entered her studio, in fishnets and high heels, asking about the meaning of lyrics she wrote. Having Soojin as a friend is an unpayable debt with the sheer amount of care she invests in her, putting up with all Soyeon’s bullshit-states and sour moods.
So when she comes to inspect the making of her three songs, everyone in the room is already lined up to please her. Soojin notices that, of course she does - it's a part of her job, to know.
“We thought about something retro, 80ties disco maybe, but with a horror twist,” Minnie moves to the computer, playing the first demo she and Yuqi pitched to Soyeon earlier.
Minnie opens the water to drink and Soojin spies with a corner of her eye how she passes the bottle to Yuqi, who sips right after without hesitation. She isn’t the only one, Soyeon is biting her nail at the scene.
Soojin squints. She stumbled across something great, but destructive in the hindsight.
Soyeon doesn’t do love affairs, especially not the complicated ones. Blonde has some kind of feelings for her friend, it’s there - barely palpable, but definitely present. She isn’t sure about Minnie, though, because her gentleness can come from familiarity.
And Soyeon? Well, whoever she wants, she wants her bad. Soojin isn’t a fool, she had her fair suspicions since Soyeon made a mistake to giggle at her phone during their dinner. Soyeon doesn’t do giggles. Being justified and right doesn’t ease her so-called ‘mother's instinct’: someone is bound to get hurt, and she just wishes it won’t be Soyeon.
It’s not a jab against the other two – they are nice, work responsibly, aren't complete idiots, even if it’s how Soyeon describes them all the time (huh, makes sense now). She won’t be there for them in the aftermath, though, so that’s a selfish enough reason to take a penny from her fountain of karma.
Soyeon is just so fragile, she lives with her hurt like an animal - crawls to dark corners, suffers silently. She won’t confide in Soojin, just take another world tour on the planet of misery. Or worse, go to church.
Is she horrified because of the idea or trippy background music? Either way:
“It’s nice. Who came up with the idea?” The professional side of her brain says. It is a solid song, experimental but still follows the rules. Surprisingly, it fits her personality and discography well.
“They won’t tell you,” Soyeon answers on behalf of her teammates, scribbling something in her notepad. “What's up with the beat? It was okay yesterday” Yesterday was her day off. Soyeon also doesn’t do work on her days off.
“It’s still okay! Better, actually. Gets the blood pumping, sets some sense of urgency. We can’t let an opening song be boring!” Minnie motions around, looking at Yuqi for support.
“It’s not, it tries to come across as zippy but falls flat because of the outro. Change it back,” she flips the page.
“What if we don’t?” Soyeon finally looks up at Yuqi’s challenge, all arching brow and straight posture.
Soojin thinks it’s even worse than what she initially imagined: it’s not just a casual hook-ups or sexual tension with one of them, it’s a game. Soyeon, what did you get yourself into? And what is your plan?
Jesus.
She won’t mess with it, Soyeon will have to figure everything out herself.
“I like the song,” Minnie breathes out on her left, Yuqi spins in the chair back to the set up. Soyeon looks at Soojin for a second, and then nods.
They set a recording date without a hunch.
Soojin will value peace when it comes to working with three of them.
23
“What about recording a real guitar for that one?” Yuqi says, and it’s actually the first good idea from her for the whole day. It doesn’t mean Soyeon will mend her schedule for some impulsive product of a tired brain. She has a bunch of little errands to run before payment day comes, can't just assemble a professional musician outside of the company on a whim.
“You know anyone who can play and has equipment on them? It’s also not on the budget, so paying them is on you,”
Minnie is already typing away on her phone, “Yuqi can play, but I think of Miyeon” blonde booo’s at that, gets zero reaction back, “she isn’t really in the community, but academically knows her stuff. And equipment – we’ll rent it if we must. Synth won’t sound the same, you know it.”
Ping, “Oh, she agreed already”
It’s not how recording is supposed to go – she isn’t the main producer, of course, but they are supposed to respect her more, at least wait for approval. Instead they are trying to get her attention by jumping over the head, and it looks arrogant most of the time, not inspiring. Does Minnie or Yuqi even think about the fact that they will have to somehow credit this Miyeon, let her in Soyeon’s studio? Of course not, they are too busy chasing greatness, and Soyeon can do all the dirty work, right?
It pisses her off, that amidst Minnie shamelessly checking her out but never openly flirting, Yuqi wagging imagery tail when Soyeon says something like “good idea”, they disregard her years of experience without even realizing.
And yeah, it won’t sound the fucking same with synths. They are smart about instrumentals, Yuqi’s approach to the melody is admittedly genius, and Minnie listens to a ton of great music on the side (how does she even find time?), imprinting it on her own creations.
Maybe Soyeon’s problem is in lost control, leash she had on everyone in her studio slipped out of tight grip, and now the wolf and the puppy have their own way around her.
Is she a sheep in this scenario?
She hopes that Miyeon is at least good.
—
No way.
This is their guitarist? Why is she in a dress? The only reason why Soyeon recognized her as one is because of the case behind her back.
Are they being for real?
“Hi. I’m Miyeon, Sawadeehao-
“Yes. I understood already. Come in,” she pushes away from the entrance, plunges back at the sofa. Just use their names, no one knows that moniker anyway.
Soyeon isn’t rude on purpose, the woman just got in a crossfire between two idiots and someone who was right at the very start – because there is no way that Miyeon can give them a good solo to work with.
It will teach them to be humble and polite, stop wasting her time on some ambitions.
“Nice space you have here! Minnie’s room is not that… chic,” Soyeon’s eye twitches. Is that her idea of a complement? What is she supposed to say? Miyeon is either really good at acting unfazed or she is genuinely clueless.
She’s spared when Minnie opens the door, holding it to let Yuqi drag a huge combo amp with few wires attached into the booth, “Sup, Miyeon unnie” she huffs. So she can use honorifics, huh.
Soyeon doesn’t think too much about the nature of their relationships, gives everyone a rundown on how the process is going to go, sets one hour timer up and lets Miyeon tune an old, but visibly custom Les Paul.
Woman looks up at the camera in the booth, signaling she’s ready, so Soyeon pushes the button, “Track 23, guitar.”
And the more Soyeon hears the more she wants to hide her face in palms. Miyeon isn’t a goddess, but she definitely has soul – it’s a core element for what they are trying to pull off. It fits as if she was here during the discussion, with how logically precise she is. She fumbles a few times, over the chorus and the rhythm, but Soyeon patiently guidies her with the best of her knowledge. They are done with the first re-recordings, and there are 16 minutes left on the timer. She hates being wrong less than she loves writing good songs, so she turns the clock off, “Again”.
Maybe she is a sheep. Maybe she should act the part then.
—
Miyeon eats a sandwich next to her when recording stretches into evening, Yuqi and Minnie off to meet the creative team of some band they’re writing for next.
“They respect you a lot,” she says when Soyeon is busy fishing out veggies from her store bought meal.
“They don’t. I don’t care, no one has to respect me for the job to be done,” this lunch is such garbage compared to everything Soojin makes her, but she won’t act on it. Giving Soojin too much satisfaction will ruin her reputation as someone well adjusted.
Respect is fleeting, what Soyeon does care about is how much employees are scared of her. Intimidation is the best tool in any field, you can’t cut your way through tall grass with a soft and dull knife.
Older men always look at her like sharks, like they can eat her in one bite – but if they try, she will cut their throat from inside with how sharp she became.
Yuqi is in awe of her, like a devotee who met their god. If she respected her, though, her hand wouldn’t linger on Soyeon’s when she passes something, wouldn’t try to act up when Soyeon contradicts her, she would call her unnie, would stop trying to get compliments out of her. Yuqi is a brat hiding in a coat of pure intentions.
Minnie is more sly. There is nothing fake in her actions, she’s out in the open, but that’s actually the tricky part: she knows she intimidates Soyeon. Uses it against her on all occasions, being too on nose knowing that younger won’t do anything about it. And it’s not just because Minnie is older, taller, has a luring voice and boring into soul eyes, but also in a way she treats her – like Soyeon is all things above, not her.
Miyeon shakes her head, “You don’t get it. They are happy that you are their mentor, not someone else. Yuqi played me some of your songs — you are pretty great, by the way. And Minnie knows your music so well, like a fan. I understand why they are so obsessed with you.”
It’s nice to be praised for good efforts. It’s nice that Yuqi and Minnie like her songs. It’s nice to talk to Miyeon.
It is late, she sees it on a wall clock behind the woman's head, so she should let her go already.
Without thinking, she says, “Give me your number.”
“Soyeon-nim, I really liked working with you, but I have a girlfrie-”
“No,” she quickly corrects herself before Miyeon can end her sentence, “I want to send you a polished version when I get to it.”
And maybe ask over the texts where she gets those sandwiches from.
26
“We never had this much time to work on songs before, had we? Even back in the uni,” Minnie says on the bus home.
It’s true, music always was with them, before lessons and after part time jobs – never full-time. Not a lot of people have a chance to hold their dream like that, on a foregrin land. So Yuqi cherishes it, but, “We had a great time at uni!”.
Minnie giggle is airy, flows with the cooling wind from the window, “Yeah. We were partying so much, jeez. Remember when we got so drunk that we stole dogs for Miyeon?”
Not taking in consideration the criminal undertones of the story, it’s actually pretty funny; the owner of the dogs turned out to be Shuhua who was in a bar arguing with her now-ex girlfriend.
Great mistake, because Minnie will agree to anything Yuqi says if they are drunk, do every dumb thing in the world for one person’s happiness.
So they took two seemingly scared (now they know that it’s just how Shuhua’s dogs look) poodles behind the preoccupied owner, and brought it to the only trustworthy person they know. Miyeon was horrified, drived to a few vets to check the chip, every single one of them closed for the night. She begged for forgiveness in the morning, asking the dog owner to take Haku and Mata back.
Freshly dumped Shuhua broke down when she saw her dogs, so Miyeon had to clumsily comfort someone who blamed her for a theft.
Under pressure she also agreed to take the dogs to all the appointments for half a year — grooming, vaccinations, walks etc.
Miyeon, instead of blaming them, introduced Shuhua to Yuqi and Minnie a year later, as her girlfriend.
Shouldn’t they at least be given credit for kicking off romance? General matchmaker Song Yuqi and her faithful right hand, colonel Nicha Yontararak, at love’s protection 24/7. And while no, “I won’t call the police” isn’t praise they want, it will have to do.
“They really won, huh? Got the best first meeting story to tell at the wedding.” Yuqi frowns at that.
“We had a great first meeting too,” Minnie doesn’t really understand why Yuqi sounds so bitter, because no, not really – it was pretty boring, they were just assigned as roommates (probably because they both weren’t korean and had the same branch), but is it a competition? And,
“We aren’t dating though.”
It’s true. They had their… moments, like that one time when Yuqi squeezed her face like an idiot sandwich and pecked her on the lips for the dare (Miyeon filmed it. They pretended it never happened), or when she and Yuqi kind of sexted (Minnie was in Thailand, it was just a few angled pictures. They pretended it never happened).
Yuqi still dated other people, a lot. They would never be a thing.
No big deal.
“Yeah. Forget it.”
29
They are on track 29, and it’s awful. It’s eleven in the evening, Soyeon won’t take whatever they are trying to do now.
Tomorrow? Okay, but it’s too much of shitty pacing and funeral tempo for today.
“These drums sound cursed. In a bad way,” Soyeon doesn’t get a reaction, Minnie continues to stare at her profile, head resting at the palm. “Minnie. Drums,” she clicks fingers in front of her face for a good measure.
“Yeah! Drums. Whatever,” she skates on her chair to the sofa where Yuqi lies with a small synthesizer, “Woogs,”
Yuqi drops her headphones immediately, “Nicha,”
“Do drums for the song 29.”
Yuqi flashes thumbs down.
They are clowns, and Soyeon’s patience is not everlasting, especially not when she has a meeting with the marketing team scheduled at 8 o’clock.
Why is she even giving a presentation to the marketing team on behalf of concept directors? Why is everyone so incompetent recently?
“And lyrics. Inappropriate. Change them,” now she got their lazer shaped attention.
It’s a song about sex, basically. Gay one. Not suggestive if you don’t know the context (read: Yuqi and Minnie thirsting over her. And over each other), but it's a self-inserted fantasy.
Soyeon will have to do so much needless paperwork before giving it to the higher-ups, and she just doesn’t want to.
It’s not like a song is phenomenal – it’s a cliche. Bold one if you have a sharp ear, but cliche nonetheless.
And the strong belief they have about Soyeon wanting to do this office romance trope with them is baffling. Where did they get the confidence? Because she bought them lunch? Or because they are buffoons?
Doesn’t matter.
She has the gun, why not just shoot in the floor to warn them, once and for all?
“I’m not having sex with both of you”
And she waits. Will they beg? Cry? What type of cryer is Yuqi? How angry can Minnie get?
Soyeon doesn’t get anything from them. Did no one hear her?
Minnie and Yuqi exchange glances, meaning not reaching them fully. It’s like a broken phone game, where they try to get the right words going off from pure vibes.
Yuqi casually shrugs, Minnie doubles it up by saying, “Okay”
“Yeah, totally cool with us” signal is caught, Yuqi nods along her words.
Soyeon sizes them up with a look, frowning in disbelief. “Whatever.”
Then she’s gone, door claps with a help of closer.
“Huh. What was that about?”
“Yeah. It was totally weird. Why would we want to have se-“
Pause. Minnie’s eyes widen in realization.
They just fucked up big time.
“Yuqi. She thought we wanted a one night stand. Because of the lyrics to 29.”
“What!” Yuqi flares up from her chair, panicking.
“Dude, we let her go away thinking that we are perverts!”
They aren’t! Not at all. Yuqi likes, really likes Soyeon, and she knows that Minnie does too. And the song? Well! Yuqi didn’t get laid for… she won’t count. You can’t just take her right to be horny.
Oh, youth is gone — don’t crucify her for growing older and lazier.
Still, Minnie liking Soyeon is the topic she doesn’t visit – she knows it, but jealousy feels like an elephant in her china shop.
Minnie is her best friend, the one who doesn’t want her. It’s alright, Yuqi taught herself to breathe through the love she feels, talked to a therapist, too. She isn’t evil for loving Minnie, all that.
It's not even the first time they have a crush on the same person, but this is a completely different case — they both have feelings for Soyeon, but it doesn’t feel like a competition. They don’t try to win her over separately, but together; it's a teamwork, in some wicked sense.
Minnie circles the room, trying to lay down a plan of actions. She’s new to this, no one previously could misconstruct her romantic — or sexual — intentions. Last guy she dated always made a move first, never letting her misstep on any point of the way, collecting all the faults.
And actually, she had a fling one time — not anything to be proud of, Yuqi just left her at the party alone, and the girl was very persistent, so it was a clumsy, bitter-pathetic experience. Also awkward, Yuqi called her in the middle (“baby, baby, don’t pick up.. turn off the phone,” Minnie’s naked suitor pleaded), offensively drunk, “bro! Where are you? Did my sober driver ditch me to get some action?”. She had to leave, ignoring the girl sobbing behind.
She thought she was good at reading the room, though, because some observance skills clearly should come from upbringing. Minnie isn’t mannerless, but maybe not as suave as she painted herself to be.
It doesn’t help that Yuqi is a serial dater and amount of significant relationships she had almost ties with your typical frat boy next door. Usually not in Yuqi’s favor, if that even matters.
Great choices you have, Jeon Soyeon, — moron or a lothario. Whose ego seems less boosted to you?
“We should just run after her, no? Explain ourselves,” if Yuqi allows herself or Minnie to spiral for too long consequences will be dire (Dire as in someone dies a painful death, and cleaners here don’t get enough to dispose two bodies)
“No! Only creeps do that stuff. We should just… I don’t know, message her?”
“Yeah, and who will be doing the writing? And who will send it?” seriousness in Yuqi’s tone doesn’t help — what was the last time she had it? When Miyeon doubted her beer pong skills? Wait.
Light bulb appears over her head, “Miyeon! She will send it,”
Logically, it works — Miyeon is on the neutral side, but she’s kind of close to all three of them (if Soyeon reacting with stickers to posts older girl sends her can count as closeness), enough to make the situation significantly less weird.
Still, practically it has few holes in the execution part:
Hey, Miyeon, the girl we both like thinks we want her for a threesome. Can you clarify that we are not swinging in a kinky way, but actually want to form a connection filled with unadulterated devotion? Thanks, xoxo.
Forever yours,
Sawadeehao.
Yeah, no.
Yuqi pick up her keys for the studio, “We need to fuck up something high caloric, our brains won’t work properly without cholesterol. Coffee?” dismissing hum, “okay, fix drums while I’m away.”
“Shut up!”
30 (-29)
The consensus was to apologize, so here they are — down on their knees, heads dunked low in front of the door.
“Soyeon, we are TERRIBLY sorry for making you uncomfortable! We were tired and didn’t get what you were trying to say, so we said something idiotic back. We don’t mean it!”
“Yeah, Soyeon, we really like you. Not just… sexually. Song really isn’t about you, I would never try to humiliate you like that”
They see reflection of themselves on Soyeon’s lenses, and maybe kneeling was a genius idea.
Soyeon looks between them, feeling like she entered the room and forgot the initial reason why.
Yuqi has a teary glint in her eyes, jaw tightly clasped. Her tense shoulders are so unlike her ever-confident stance, and desperation suits her so much. Soyeon wishes she never knew that.
Minnie, on the contrary, stares up at her relaxed, a little bit guilty if anything. Her hooded eyes looking up is the only indication of her position on the knees.
The horrors.
Soyeon went home yesterday thinking her colleagues are dumb and weird, that she misunderstood what they wanted and going to work tomorrow will be just a tad uneasy, as always. It’s so much worse, Soyeon decides, they are more dangerous than I imagined.
“Apologies accepted, just… stand up. It’s embarrassing,” Soyeon doesn’t look back when she sits down, opening laptop, “Yuqi, in the booth, demo for track 30, before you rework 29. I have an office supply check at 13 — make it quick.”
“Yes, cap,” pliant tone is back before Yuqi herself is gone, and everything returns to its orbits.
But nothing does, not really — something is shifted beyond repair in already wrong relationship, Minnie sitting a little bit too close to her is a clear proof of it.
32
They are at a baseball game, and it’s not a date. Okay, scratch that — it’s definitely a date for Miyeon and Shuhua, but not for the three of them. Minnie still isn’t sure why Soyeon agreed to come with them, because yeah, celebration of their first songs coming out is supposed to be a big deal. For Yuqi and her, not established producer who is with them for a paycheck. Does it make sense?
Reason won’t change the result, and Minnie isn’t going to lie that she’s against Soyeon sitting on her left, clearly out of loop.
“Is it good?” Soyeon hotly half-shouts in her ear when enemy teams score second in a row home run. Minnie doesn’t miss how Yuqi side-eyes them, but doesn’t move closer to overhear the conversation.
Is she afraid? Does she want to be in Minnie's place? Wants to explain the game she loves, patiently and eagerly? Wants Minnie gone?
Match is nearing its end; batter of their team has one chance after swinging into the abyss, and when the ball is hit, the bat is dropped they get a win, starting off the season with a glorious victory.
The crowd roars, Minnie doesn’t miss a beat before standing up, pumping fist in the air and looks back to-
Soyeon is squeezing Yuqi’s thigh, adrenaline of the stadium finally finding its way into her blood, and Minnie feels like an extra edge on the line. Like she’s back on the sidelines of the bar, watching Yuqi kissing strangers on the dancefloor.
Until Yuqi stands up to high-five her. They were 20 then, and Soyeon isn’t a stranger. Minnie feels dumb.
Because it’s not a movie where the lead guy gets the girl while the extra character mends his broken heart — it’s them. And Soyeon.
—
They wait with Miyeon outside of the toilet stalls, and Minnie's patience finally blows.
“You. You are not interested in baseball, neither is Shuhua. Why don’t you just say what you want to?”
Miyeon just slurps her drink from the straw, disinterested and not intimidated in the slightest. She puffs her cheeks in feigned childishness, “Are you being rude for the sake of being rude? I thought we had a good time.”
“You cheered for the wrong team for the whole game!”
“Yeah! It’s not about the game, but about the people around me! And stop screaming at me!”
Bullshit! Miyeon is observant, she tries not to meddle in but obviously wants to. This whole outing, “I got 5 tickets!”, is just an excuse to understand the situation better, get into business that isn’t hers.
“If you want advice just say so,” and maybe Minnie fussed so much as an excuse, too. They aren’t so different after all.
Just asking her older friend seems like admitting defeat, like she can’t deal with something by herself, so she has to rely on someone she clowns all the time. She raises that white flag, but never without a battle.
“When... Shuhua was in love with another girl, how did you… cope with it?”
Miyeon looks serious now, hands folded behind her back, body resting against the wall.
“It’s not the same, you know?” comes after a while.
“How so?”
“I was in love with just Shuhua,” look in Miyeon’s eyes is gentle, like she’s being too careful with Minnie’s perception of the world.
Yuqi comes out, holding the door for Soyeon and Shuhua, hands still wet. Trying to impress a girl while simultaneously being gross just screams Yuqi.
—
“Soyeon, want to grab drinks with us?”
They just bid farewell to Miyeon and Shuhua, the couple “still has to walk the dogs” and “Shuhua’s legs are tired” or whatever. Con is successful, they are left alone — three of them, roaming empty streets side by side.
“At the bar? No way. I hate crowded places, it’s a waste of energy for overpriced booze,”
It gives them a tight opening: just a little crack to squeeze into, “Then let’s buy some beer in a store and drink in the studio,” Minnie shrugs nonchalantly, in the face of admittedly a big deal.
Silence.
“… Okay. But we are not getting drunk,”
Yuqi lights up, nodding like a broken machine, “Yeah! Okay! That’s cool,” she looks at Minnie and smiles stretches against her face slowly.
They got her.
—
She got them.
They were terribly mistaken, the idea of taming Soyeon got in their heads, crippling their awareness and dumbing them down to an intellectual level of mice, no wonder they are caught off guard when she says, “So, how long have you been together?”
“Us?” Yuqi points finger at herself and then at Minnie, back and forth.
Soyeon nods, taking a sip again.
“We.. aren’t?”
“Are you asking me?”
“No! I’m just shocked – where did you even get that idea from?”
They never act couple-y, never hold hands in public spaces, everything they say to each other is loud, no one in university spreaded rumors about them.
Yuqi aches at the idea of Soyeon figuring her out.
Minnie is on the other side of the spectrum, is Soyeon a lightweight and says nonsense that comes to mind?
“You seem close. And when you talked about… liking me, you made it sound like you’re in this,” she shrugs, “together. I don’t know.”
“We aren’t," Yuqi's tone is sharp and pained, like she has a lump in her throat.
Soyeon doesn’t say anything for a while, just stares at the ceiling. Silence is tingling in the room, making it spinny - Yuqi is sure she didn’t drink much, but the feelings she has are close to getting high, somehow. The hunger is there.
And when Soyeon chugs the remains of her beer before standing up two pairs of eyes follow her, dazed. She goes in Minnie’s direction — who is squeezed into her swivel chair, afraid to even breathe too loud — and plants herself on an older girl's lap, grabs her shoulders.
Soyeon thought about it so much, even before a 29 debacle, — dreamed about big hands, heavy panting, Minnie’s eyes locking with hers when she gets off, Yuqi’s teeth biting and leaving a hickey.
Being between them, on them, under them, having control and handing it over, push Yuqi’s buttons and smother it with praise, let older woman do the same for her. She looked up some porn for scientific purposes, just to get it off her head, test the water with a shallow dip of foot.
Maybe her coworkers aren’t the only weirdos here. Who cares?
Most importantly, she gets this look again – without guilt, it’s replaced with desire, unwashed and overt, dripping at Soyeon’s skin, burning trails to her heart and lower, between her thighs. Soyeon needed to see it again, to get this rush of power over someone who is too huge for her, someone who chooses to be docile and good.
She tilts her head forward just to be met with an open mouthed kiss, a whine worthy one. Soyeon is a rough kisser but Minnie takes her time, licking on her teeth, sucking her lips – nice and steady, like they aren’t in a chair of their shared workplace. Her hands are everywhere, even when they are trying hard to be careful and not too suggestive, just like she imagined.
It’s everything, more that Soyeon can bite, chew and swallow, but she’s a greedy woman — she deserves to be like that, worked so damn much to be where she is, — so next time Minnie’s hands slightly hover above her ass she moans “Yuqi”.
Who seems to get the memo, quick on her feet. She’s instantly pressed against Soyeon, leaving broad licks and bites all over her neck, like her life depends on how good her work will be perceived, like she's trying to prove a point. Or maybe she just likes the taste.
Soyeon carves her thighs into Yuqi, humping on nothing, giving blonde a desirable reaction.
Yuqi palms Minnie’s side, one hand hicks up her shirt just to feel the ribcage, and Soyeon catches a noise coming from the woman with her mouth.
I get what Miyeon meant earlier, oh fuck, I do, Yuqi’s touch is firm, heavy with absence of intent, only faint idea of bringing pleasure makes her grope Minnie over the bra.
Soyeon leans back into Yuqi’s chest completely, huffing. Younger girl just bites one last time before detaching herself from her neck and surging forward to kiss Minnie, teeth crashing against each other from the urgency. Hot, Soyeon can’t look away.
I can get used to this, Yuqi muses, fingers of free hand slipping past the waistband of Soyeon’s joggers.
33
“Hey, bro. Good morning,” Yuqi gets a cold cup pressed against her forehead, “It’s 10 o’clock already. I have your pills and I bought coffee from a pretty barista in the place across the street. If you open your eyes now, there will be croissants still left for you. Maybe,” it makes her blink, but artificial light of the studio blinds her and her wish to wake up.
She sits up, disregarding soreness, because Minnie will eat her breakfast otherwise. She’s full of empty threats, just not when it comes to food.
“Is Soyeon still here? Did you see her in the morning? Oh fuck, my head hurts” Yuqi rasps, rubbing her face.
“No to both, but honestly, I would be surprised if she stayed. Doesn’t sound like her style,” amen to that.
“Do you think she already skipped town and we will never see her again?”
She gets her own t-shirt thrown on the face, peeling it off reveals Minnie in the same clothes as yesterday, topped with a messy bun, hands on her sides.
In Yuqi’s opinion, walk of shame from the music studio sounds pretty cool, very American; it’s good they are on the same boat.
“She works here and we are assigned to her, so the meeting is inevitable. Buckle up, horndog” Minnie bites her croissant, spinning on the chair (the other one) back to the laptop. “Do you think we should sample something from the oldies on track 33? I don’t know, I just think it would add the storytelling points.”
35
Living with Yuqi now that she knows about her own feelings for the girl is actually not hard at all. Dynamic between them didn’t change, they will just playfully kiss where usually they would banter. They don’t talk about it, but it’s cool - nothing is pent up.
And Soyeon? Well, they talk about Soyeon plenty — when she picks her hair in high ponytail before fitting between Yuqi’s legs, when Yuqi’s fingers are knuckle deep inside her, when they are having breakfast or washing the dishes. They make it seem like it’s no different than talking about a partner who flew on a business trip.
It was about sex, after all. Just not fully.
It’s embarrassing only when they call back to their parents, forced to explain the badly hidden marks over the grainy selfie camera by monstrous korean microflora. Or when Shuhua passes money to Miyeon after Yuqi announces the relationship status – or the absence of it – to the couple. They betted on them! Why did Miyeon win?
And hey, they still have some songs to write in 2 weeks. Isn't the grass greener when you have a job and a constant lay?
36
Yuqi is out already when Soyeon visits the studio, Minnie’s headphones blast music loud enough to hear from afar. When she taps her shoulder the older girl just looks up, too tired to play out shock.
“Hi. I’m struggling with a hook on 36 so much — they all suck, no matter what I do.”
“It’s late. You should be at home.”
Good, now they are both frustrated. Soyeon with the fact that Minnie brushed off the whole threesome discussion, Minnie with the fact that it’s her first time seeing Soyeon in a week.
She doesn’t want a scandal, though. No screaming and tears, especially when they still have work to do. Together.
And Minnie is afraid that Soyeon wants her, that all the time she was gone was to make up her mind, make a choice. Maybe she has a hidden conformist in her, the one who wants to settle in a normal way, despite not being normal, voices that whisper to her about what people might think.
She isn’t doing it. Yuqi won’t either. Society can choke on them, if that’s what it takes, so she says:
“I know you want to talk, but we can’t. Not without Yuqi. I’m not doing it without her,” she refers not to the conversation only, and it’s the first clear boundary of their relationship.
It’s either three of them or no one at all.
Soyeon takes the conditions, folds them and throws onto her paper stack. If that’s how it is, then she accepts, gives her stamp of approval, “take those papers up to the boss”.
They will revisit it, at some point, so for now, “Turn me on what you have already. Let’s try to finish before noon.”
Minnie presses play.
40
Minnie, Yuqi and Soyeon are sitting in a circle, bottle of Soju in the middle.
They didn’t talk about anything (yet), but worked a lot (still). All 40 songs are created, voices recorded, final edits made two times, everyone is satisfied with the results.
All before the deadlines - a total miracle (not really) considering that masterminds behind it are novices and company's contracts are designed to exploit talents, throw artists away when inhuman requests aren’t met.
Soyeon knew that she already has her stakes in the game early on – she choose Yuqi and Minnie in a professional setting, their soul and skills. She wants to make music with them.
Accepted that she is in the long haul in other fields too.
So, to talk about it (finally) they all need some alcohol courage: you tell one truth and get one shot.
She got that idea from Soojin (who did get involved), because doing it in a normal way isn’t an option, since they aren’t.
Yuqi goes first, taking a generous swig, “I’m in love with you, Nicha. Since, like.. the second year of university, when you made me hot pot at home when I was sick,” she looks at Soyeon, “Her rich ass bought a portable stove. We had a kitchen at the dorms already! Isn’t she ridiculous?”
Soyeon scoffs, because yeah. It is ridiculous, but also noble in a way she herself isn’t. Is everyone so full of love and care or just these two?
Yuqi passes a bottle to an outstretched hand, “My family thinks you are my girlfriend. Deadass. I never bothered to correct them because, well, we were kind of dating all those years, haven’t we?” Minnie wipes her mouth from remnants of liquid.
“For real?! That’s why your brothers are so weird around me?” Minnie shrugs and gives Soyeon a turn to speak.
It’s scary to be honest, especially with people who matter. She is not accustomed to healthy communication, never felt the necessity to be open with anyone she dated before. Soyeon had a degree to study for, a career to build, a mind to free from sufferings of body, something more important always came up.
There is nothing more important than Yuqi and Minnie right now, though. Maybe never will be again. Is Soyeon going to die an emotion-virgin? Without some confessions and leaps of faith – yeah, that’s for sure.
“I like both of you. Romantically,” she takes another sip for a good measure, “I never had anything like that before… So,” Yuqi’s positively dopey smile helps her unravel, “I want to date you” she points at Yuqi with her left index finger, “and you” right one at Minnie, then intervenes her hands, “together.”
She slides a bottle back to Yuqi, who swishes the drink in her mouth and crawls to Soyeon.
She didn’t swallow is the last thing in Soyeon’s mind before Yuqi’s lips covers her, hand around her jaw forces mouth to open up, mixing alcohol with spit. It’s their first kiss and nothing could prepare her for the strong mint taste Yuqi has and just how wet of a kisser she is, saliva drips on Soyeon’s chin, down to the neck.
Minnie on their right brushes Soyeon’s hair from her face, tucks it behind ear, leans over to whisper, “It’s unfair that she’s the only one having all the fun”. Her hand is under Soyeon’s shirt, groping her back in up and down motion before finding the clasp of the bra.
She shrieks in surprise when Minnie flatly licks her from jaw to cheek one, two, three times. And when Yuqi sinks her hands to feel Soyeon’s breast – out of bra now – the woman tilts her head back to moan, only to be guided in a different kiss.
Soyeon tries to speak up but only muffled sounds get out, vibrating on Minnie’s lips. She pushes older woman with palms on her chest and when she succeeds, her breath is too ragged to say anything.
“No sex in my studio ever again,” Soyeon’s voice is hoarse, she is still panting heavily.
Yuqi doesn’t seem neither tired nor disappointed, she just plants her head on Soyeon’s thighs, phone in hands, “Say less, babe- “Do not call me that, Song Yuqi” -I’m calling a cab with babe’s number two- “Why the fuck am I the babe number two!” -credit card”
Minnie can’t wait to get home just to see Soyeon’s reaction at the fact that they have two small beds. Hoo boy, and how are we going to make it work is an exciting thought, even though she’s uncomfortably aroused now. Can our shower fit three people?