"You're a bit different and you keep shaking me up. Your eyes and the way you speak, style. Oh it's like living in a different world. Baby, regardless of your hair. My heart wants you after I met you" Just A Little Bit by Enhypen

Avoiding him once promotions started was the hardest thing ever, and Jaeyun hated every minute of it.

Aside from the fact that she had to perform twice with him for the next four weeks, the rest of her avoiding him plan was easy, and she also hated it. She was glad that there weren't many moments in the dance where they had to interact, but that didn't stop her tiktok for you page to be flooded with his fancams. Almost like if the app knew.

Since they were both tired from music shows, she was able to use that excuse a lot, but she knew it couldn't last too long, she was just hoping this would drive him away from her, even if it hurt her.

Forcing herself to look at her phone while backstage during their music show performances was starting to get a bit easier by the day, she mostly stuck to being on twitter or any other social media to check up on the fans, she had even started reading a book on her phone so she wouldn't be bored.

Taking another sip from her iced coffee, she closed twitter for the third time during the few hours she had been there, finally looking up from her phone and searching for Yua. On the tv screen near her, Nara was interviewing a newly debuted group called Ambrosia and as Jaeyun looked at the members, she recognized Oh Saemi, a girl that had been with them on I-Land. For what Jaeyun remembers, Saemi had been eliminated about 2 episodes before the finale. As she eyed them, the memory of the announcement of her debuting soon came to her mind, she had totally forgotten the date though.

The interview finished, so she watched as the MCs (Nara, Jisung from NCT and Theo from P1harmony) waved at the camera while leaning against the Ambrosia girls, but her eyes caught how Saemi seemed to lean away from Nara, trying to disguise it with a smile. Weird.

Her eyes went back to scanning the Mcountdown waiting room to find her friend, finally seeing her in front of a mirror touching up her make-up with a small brush.

"Hey" Jaeyun caught her attention by hitting their hips together "help me take some pictures, I haven't posted in a while"

"I'm gonna end up stabbing my eye if you do that again" Yua said; looking at her, she realized the girl was holding her phone at her, "fine"

There wasn't a good place to take pictures inside the waiting room, so the two girls headed towards the hallway, saying hello to other passing idols as they walked.

Yua took about 5 or more photos of her with different poses and angles, the grey wall behind her being the perfect background for her black and red outfit.

"I think that's enough" Jaeyun said, fixing her hair again behind her ears and walking towards her friend to check the pictures.

"You should post these two" Yua showed them to her "you look good"

"Thank you, bestie" Jaeyun's smile grew wider after seeing Yua roll her eyes at Jaeyun's konglish.

"Now take some for me" she said "let me go get my blazer" she added before walking away, leaving Jaeyun standing by herself.

Sunghoon watched Yua leave to the waiting room, quickly turning his head again to keep taking pictures of Jay.

"What do you think?" he asked after taking more photos, turning the phone so Jay could look at them

"Sexy," Jay said, a smirk growing on his face "as expected from a man like me" his comment made Sunghoon roll his eyes too and smile at his friend.

Jaeyun smiled for a moment, a very small smile. Do you think that with that big of an ego you're gonna be able to fit through the door? she thought.

"Shouldn't you be on my side on this?" he would answer.

"Someone has to humble you my friend, that's my job" she would shot back, probably even wink at him.

But even though she wanted to say it, even though she wanted to tease him, she forced herself to look down at her phone again, pretending like she didn't hear him. Because of that, she didn't see him looking at her for some reaction, missing how his expression changed to one of disappointment as he also forced himself to look away from her.

Yua walked back to the room and Jaeyun quickly shifted her focus to her friend and not the boy she was starting to fall for.

[***]

The car was silent on the way back to the dorm. All five girls were exhausted, but happy. They had gotten their second win that week and Nara had been the one to hand them the trophy, so the younger girl was also excited, or at least that's what Jaeyun assumed, but the girl was mostly quiet during the ride too.

"I saw that Saemi eonni debuted" Mari broke the silence on the car "I wanted to congratulate her after the performance but couldn't find her"

"Yeah, me neither" Raon said, turning towards Nara "you interviewed her, right? Were you able to talk to her?"

Nara shook her head, her silence raising concern on the other members.

"Is everything okay?" Jaeyun made sure to make her voice sound soft as she spoke to the girl.

"I just..." Nara started, her voice cracking for a moment "I tried... I tried talking to her but she ignored me, then I tried to see if she wanted me for the tiktok they had to post but she said no and avoided me and-" tears started streaming down her cheeks before she could keep going, so she tried to brush them away.

"Hey- Hey, it's okay" even with her seatbelt on, Jaeyun managed to get closer to the girl and hug her, rubbing her back to comfort her "it wasn't your fault, but it's okay to cry"

"Yeah" Yua said "to be honest she was kinda mean back when we were trainees" she explained "but somehow during I-Land the editors made her look nice" she rolled her eyes "she literally made some younger trainees cry back at the company"

"She even made fun of me when I got back after my injury" Jaeyun added "she's a bitch, it has nothing to do with you"

"I know" Nara lifted her head from Jaeyun's chest, cleaning her tears again and taking a deep breath "It's just... she was never really mean to me, so I thought it would be cool if I congratulated her on her debut"

"Some people are just mean" Raon said, reaching towards the girl's knee and squeezing it a little "I know this sounds like crap advice, but you just have to ignore her"

Nara took another deep breath "I'll try"

"Okay" they all said at the same time.

"Can we get food before getting there?" Mari asked, breaking again the silence.

Raon sighed "you should've told me before" she said "but yes"

[***]

Her hairstylist fixed her hair before the live, brushing some hair strands away from her face and tightening her half ponytail before leaving behind the camera again.

Evermore had never done any lives to answer questions, normally they answered them on weverse, other lives or even interviews, never a special live for it.

Jaeyun kept moving her hands and legs on the chair, what she usually did when she got nervous. The t-shirt she was wearing had short sleeves, and for the first time in almost two years of being an idol, she wasn't covering her tattoos anymore. Other times where her tattoos showed even a little bit, they would use small pieces of fabric to cover them or even blur them with some effect before posting whatever video she was in, just like they had done with Jungkook (sunbaenim) from bts.

Her left arm was covered with different tattoos, some she had gotten while she was a trainee (with the company's permission) and others she had gotten after debuting. She had always loved flowers, so the biggest tattoo on her arm was a bunch of pink roses, a similar design to one she had seen on pinterest. More plant-based designs were across her arm, a few lavender ones and other flowers she couldn't name, she just liked how pretty they were.

Then, at the very top of her forearm, she had a small tattoo of another flower, a few purple ones, other pink ones and two blue ones. She shared that tattoo with Yua, who was also showing it today. They had gotten it right after debuting to celebrate, they wanted to share it with Raon too, but the older girl is afraid of needles, so they didn't pressure her to do anything she didn't want to. Pink represented Jaeyun and purple represented Yua, blue for Raon and then a little bit of yellow and green for Mari and Nara, who couldn't get tattoos at the time. It was definitely her favourite out of all of the ones she had.

She kept tracing over some other small ones near her wrist, a book with some swirls around it acting out as magic, while she waited for the live to start. Her fans had always been curious over her tattoos, so she was excited for them to see them.

"We're starting on five!" one of the staff members yelled from behind the camera. Jaeyun didn't know what to say, so she just showed a thumbs up at them.

"Always and forever!" the all said, quickly vowing to the camera and doing their hand sign "hello we are EVERMORE!"

"And today we are here to answer some questions about our latest comeback" Raon kept going with the introduction, turning her head to look at Jungwon who was sitting next to her "But we're not here alone"

Enhypen did their introduction as well, Jaeyun even caught herself trying to do their hand sign, not succeeding at all. Her eyes drifted towards Jay without realizing. He was wearing black pants with a black and indigo shirt and some silver necklaces layered in his neck. His blonde hair stood out with those colours, even with some indigo highlights her had gotten done.

They were all wearing the colours of the other group as part of their concept. Black and indigo were the official colours of Evermore and black and red were the ones for Enhypen, that's why she was wearing a red t-shirt with a black skirt and black boots. Her makeup also being a mixture between red and black and she had some silver necklaces too.

"As you know, we asked on twitter for you guys to write questions for us about our latest comeback" Raon explained and clapped her hands "Let's start!"

"Which one is your favourite song from the album?"

"Mine's definitely 'Old friendships'" Yua said with a smile, pointing at Jaeyun before adding "my best friend wrote it, how can I not like it?" that comment made Jaeyun laugh, whispering a thank you to her friend.

"Did your relatives like the new album?"

"My sister really liked it" Jaeyun said "she literally sent me text messages while she listened to each song and watched the video" she added while smiling, her sister had kept her promise after all.

"Favourite memory while filming the video?"

"Definitely the ramen" Jaeyun said without thinking first, laughing at how weird the answer sounded.

"Oh yeah!" Jake turned to look at her "the ramen there was so good!"

The staff handed Jaeyun another question and she opened the paper, showing it towards the camera as she read it out loud.

"How did Jaeyun and Jay produce a song together?" she read in English, Raon quickly reading the Korean under it after she finished. For the first time in weeks, Jaeyun's eyes locked with Jay's, the butterflies in her stomach coming back at the action.

Or should I call them killer bees?

She took a deep breath "we..." she started, suddenly not knowing what to say. She ripped her eyes off his, looking at the camera while taking a deep breath "I... I was working on the lyrics and... he walked in" she looked at Yua for help, the girl gave her a weird look back so she raised her eyes again "he offered to help me with the song" she finally said "and I liked what he showed me so... that" she smiled, hoping that would disguise the awkwardness she was feeling in the moment. She knew Jay was looking at her, she could feel it, but she used all of her strength to stare at the camera, or anywhere else.

"Okay" Raon said, also looking at her with questioning eyes "let's move on"

They all agreed.

Jaeyun looked down at her hands, playing with her fingers as the others answered more questions.

Yua read something in Japanese, making Jaeyun lift her head to look at her friend. She saw Niki and Jay nodding at what she was saying, for a moment regretting not paying more attention during her Japanese classes during trainee days.

"Would it be too bad if I ask you to teach me insults in Japanese?" Jaeyun had asked Yua during a break when they were trainees. She had fought with Jay, again, that day and had gotten the idea after.

"I won't teach you" Yua said, not looking up from her lunch.

Jaeyun gasped, pretending to be offended "I would do the same for you in Spanish"

Yua stopped her fork motion and looked at her, her eyes narrowed in confusion "I didn't ask you to?"

"I know, I just didn't know what to say"

Yua hummed in response.

"Okay but like just one-"

"NO"

Jaeyun smiled at the memory, looking up again to see Heeseung answering the question. A quick look at the paper let Jaeyun know the question was "did you know each other while you were trainees?"

"Jaeyun?" one of the staff members asked her, she felt bad she couldn't see them because of the light.

"I... I mostly hung out with Yua" Jaeyun answered, pointing at her friend "but, wait Jake was with us in Korean class, right?" she mostly asked Yua, but she looked at Jake to see his reaction.

"Wait I..." he paused for a second "I think we were, but we didn't talk much"

"Oh right" she looked back at the camera after sharing a smile with him, unknowingly making Jay clench his fist, "yeah, I never really interacted with them"

As the interview kept going, it became easier for Jaeyun to pretend everything was normal, but that didn't mean she couldn't see how Jay glanced at her every now and then.

The boy didn't know why he felt this way. Why his chest ached while he watched her talk to Jake, or why he felt disappointed, even sad, when she avoided his looks? Did he actually try to kiss her that night? Did he scare her? He didn't know.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Jisung and Theo were the first idols I could think of for the mc thing.

The matching tattoos idea idk how it came, but I found this pic (below) on pinterest and really loved it for them. (there's a little bit of yellow somewhere on the design I swear)

Tbh I wanted to write about her tattoos before but it didn't feel right, idk why. Then, her other tattoos description are just based on ones I would like to get one day (I literally have a pinterest board filled with inspo pics but have no money hahaha *cries*)

I hope you guys liked this chapter! Vote and comment if you want and I'll see you next update! Bye!!!

P.S: I'm still confused if it's "hanged out" or "hung out" and google is not helping (it says both are correct? idk)