t h i r t y f i v e

The concert ended after about three hours and Sarang turned off the television. She had been flipping through both channels at first--watching both concerts--but by the end of it she was only watching EXO perform for her boyfriend Junmyeon who she promised she would be watching. Watching their own concert was getting frustrating anyway, since they wanted to be there and they couldn't. Then there was the fact that Bom was not respecting the distribution of Sun and Minnie's solos which had been given to Ara and Rin to sing in their absence. Instead it was Bom who took them over.

When the other girls gave a small pause during intermission for water breaks, Rin tried to say a few words on their missing members. Pledis had already taken care of it on social media by issuing a statement about how three of their members had come down with a virus, and were recovering in the dorms.

Of course nobody believed them since the whole world was aware of the recent drama involving Pledis and SM idols.

Rin started to talk about how the three girls were recovering and were getting plenty of rest when Bom shot her a look which intimidated the foreign Baby Lips member. She stepped back towards the end of the stage and quietly grabbed a water bottle to refresh herself before continuing with the concert.

Aron left after the concert ended and told Sun that if she needed anything, she could go find him in his dorm. Nu'est was two floors below Baby Lips and he had the entire hall to himself since the other members were promoting out of town and he wasn't allowed to leave the building as punishment for his instagram post. Sun highly considered spending the night on his floor because she knew that upon returning from the concert, Bom would make it her mission to let the three missing members know that they had been just fine without them.

Her red velvet hair tied back into pig tails and changed into a pair of warm pajamas for the night, Sun went to her room to grab her pillow and blanket. She was almost out the door when Sarang stopped her.

"Where are you going?" She raised an eyebrow at her in question.

Sun heaved a sigh. "We all know Bom's going to come into our floor bellowing about how the concert was great and how Baby Lips would be so much better with eleven members instead of twelve." She explained to Sarang, which should have been obvious considering Bom was a declared Sun-hater. "I'm not in the mood for that, unnie. So I told Aron I was spending the night on his floor."

"In his room?" Sarang wondered.

"I'll just ask to sleep in one of his group mates' rooms." She replied with a shake of her head. "You can come too if you want. I invited Minnie, but she said her room is on the other end of the hall, furthest from Bom's room. So that should be enough to restrain her from killing her." Sun said, her last sentence had been paraphrased from what Minnie told her. Only Minnie's own words involved a few curse words in Spanish.

"I worry about Minnie." Sarang confessed.

Sun tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows in question. "How come?"

"I feel like Bom is trying to get you and her to snap so that she can have the reasons to get you two kicked out of the group." The group leader explained. She added after a brief pause, "I know you can contain your urge to pull her hair out strand by strand. But Minnie--she grew up in Mexico. She was brought up a different way, with different customs. Minnie has told me that when she lived over there, she was encouraged to fight anyone who messed with her. When we were trainees, there were stories going around that her godmother taught her how to fight and that Minnie used that to beat up a kid who teased her in primary school--with an umbrella."

Sun remembered hearing that story from Minnie herself. That little boy that used to tease her, and that she beat up with her Hello Kitty umbrella was now her boyfriend. Still, it had been an inspiring story in which Minnie learned to stand up for herself. From what Minnie told her, the Mexican culture encouraged people to be brave and face their fears--even if it meant they had to fight someone.

As a trainee--a foreign trainee especially--that was very important. Many times, the foreign trainees not only dealt with the struggles of living so far away from their home, but they also dealt with Korean trainees who bullied them.

For Minnie it was different.

No one teased her because they knew she had it in her to give someone a black eye. Much like the one she had given Bom which was expertly hidden for the concert under tons of make-up.

When Sun said nothing, Sarang continued. "I honestly think Bom's just jealous because you and Minnie are best friends now. They used to be inseparable and I think she feels like you took Minnie from her."

With a sigh, Sun agreed. "We always tried to include her--back when we were still trainees. But Bom was really cold towards me and always tried to get Minnie's attention for herself. So Minnie talked to her one day about it. Bom got really mad and they stopped being close after that. I don't know the details too well." Sun shrugged her shoulders. All she really remembered was that Bom never liked her from the start, even though Sun tried to get along with her. After a while, she just stopped trying and only had contact with Bom whenever she had to.

Gesturing to the door, Sun said to her friend, "I'm going to hurry and go before they get back."

Sarang nodded and gave her a small smile. "Sleep well, maknae."

"You too, unnie." Sun said and pushed the door open.

She walked out into the hallway and took her blanket along with her pillow down the stairs and two floors down. Aron was alone in the lounge room of his floor, watching a Spanish language news show on a channel that Sun remembered because she often watched Isaac's football games with Minnie. They were usually broadcast through there.

He turned as he heard footsteps walking into the room and smiled at her, patting the empty seat on the couch next to him. "Your outfit reminds me of something babies wear." He told her with an amused tone.

"Don't you criticize my onesie, Aron. Or I swear to God--" She warned him in a joking manner. She was wearing a white with bright rainbow colors adorning some of it. On the hood part it had a rainbow mane and a horn because it was a unicorn one piece--one that Yixing had given her for her birthday the previous year. She walked over to the couch and plopped down next to him. Gesturing to the television, she asked him, "What are you watching?"

"Allisson." He replied with a sad sigh.

Sun looked closely at the television to find that they were announcing the sports news. The woman on the screen was beautiful and wore a bright smile on her face. The by line on the screen included her name, Marie Jennings. She was on the Spanish sports news network in Los Angeles.

"My dad found her for you." Sun commented happily. Though with a bi of confusion she asked, "Why does her name say Marie?"

"Its her middle name." Aron told her. "But she uses it now as her official name. Allisson Marie Lugo Jennings."

"You should go and find her." Sun encouraged.

"Pledis is sending us precisely to Los Angeles in two months for KCON. I think your group is going too." He pointed out, recalling what he saw on the official line up for the convention. "And I want to go see her. I just don't have the balls to face her after the way I left her like that."

Sun also remembered seeing Baby Lips in the official KCON line up. It was supposed to take place on a weekend in which they would have no concert dates, which gave them enough time to travel to the United States, perform at the convention, and then return in time to resume giving concerts on their tour. Sun also remembered seeing EXO in the official line up, but next to their group name were the words confirmation pending, which meant there was a chance they wouldn't be going. It mostly depended on whether or not they would have a concert that weekend.

"It'll be fine." She assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go with you if you want. Moral support between friends who were supposedly dating but were really not."

He chuckled. "I never said we were friends."

Sun gasped. "Rude."

"I'm joking." He blew her a raspberry.

-

Aron and Sun slept on the couch in the lounge room after spending most of the night flipping through the channels and watching anything that seemed interesting. Aron once again made the offer of talking to Yixing about Sun, but she declined. She doubted Yixing would even listen to Aron. For one, he was Sun's supposed boyfriend. There was also the fact that Aron had indirectly called out Yixing on instagram. Sun wasn't sure if Yixing saw it, but considering that it made waves on the internet, she doubted that he hadn't.

She returned to her dorm after setting her alarm and getting up at six in the morning. At seven, the other girls would be waking up to get ready for their concert that night.

Sun was in her dorm waiting for time to tick by until seven.

She scrolled aimlessly through her social media accounts. On most of them she found reposts and articles about Baby Lips' concert the previous night. But there was a more dominant amount of talk about EXO and their concert. There were video clips of the fans chanting encouragement for the two boys who were known to have girlfriends from rival agencies.

It started out quiet and gained momentum, and Sun could see in some of the clips how the cameras focused on the reactions of Junmyeon and Yixing. Both expressions were opposites of each other. Junmyeon was overjoyed with the support, barely able to contain his smile as it formed on his lips and he tried to continue singing. When it came to Yixing, Sun swore she saw his lips quivering as he bit down on them. His face was serious and he kept turning away from the audience. Most people thought it a gesture of shyness at the support he was getting. But Sun knew the truth.

He was trying to contain his tears, and their chanting of her name wasn't helping.

She clicked through all the articles showing the same thing. A happy Junmyeon in the videos, while Yixing was internally suffering.

When she ran out of articles to read about the previous night's concert--when it came to the support of the fans--she clicked on another one about Yixing. It was about his solo during the concert and how it had been changed last minute to something else.

He had been at first scheduled to sing I'm Lay--a song that he had written himself.

But at the concert, he had appeared with his guitar singing something entirely different during his solo. Sun hadn't noticed it when she watched with Sarang. But it had probably happened when she switched back to Baby Lips' concert to see how things were going.

"This song is called Mean." He said in Korean into the microphone headset he was wearing.

The fans started screaming in encouragement and within moments his fingers began expertly strumming his guitar. His eyes closed for a moment and he sucked in a breath before he began to sing.

"Mean.
You were so mean to me.
I would have accepted all this suffering
as long as it was by your side.

You've done what most hurts me

with every lie.

And I say this with no more bitterness.

I never lost you

Because I never had you.
While I was entirely yours.

But you were mean.
You were so mean to me.
And though I honestly love you,

I understand that a love like this one
was never a sincere one."

Sun shrunk in her place, sitting in her bed when she realized those words were for her. Some of them were even words he had used when he broke up with her. Tirandole pedradas--throwing stones at her with each word--as Minnie would put it.

But he was right.

She hadn't been the best to him, even though she tried to protect him.

Through that song he was trying to tell her that no matter what, they would not be getting back together. More than just sadness at their break up, Sun could feel the resentment in his heart.

He had loved her, but now she wasn't sure if he still did.

-

quick post bc im about to go grocery shopping with my mom at ten at night. lol

i hope you all like the chapter.

no long author's note tonight. i have a four day weekend, to expect more frequent updates until the end of the story. thank you loads for reading!

btw, song was translated from a spanish song that i really like. listen to it if you have the time. i think it really fits yixing's current pov on their relationship. its called "que mala" (how mean) by los bukis.

-clary xx