The host turns his attention towards her, shuffling a set of cue cards in his hands, and the audience grows silent.
"Mira!" he says with a wide, unsettling smile — the one he always uses when he has some sort of dirt on celebrities — and she knows exactly where this question is headed. "You went to medical school?"
"Yes," she replies simply, arm draped on the back of the couch behind Zoey and Rumi. Mira stays relaxed, cool, nonchalant, like this is just any other question about their choreographies or their tour.
There's a few gasps from the audience, a coo here and there. A girl, probably in her late teens if her voice is anything to go by, lets out a dreamy sigh before saying "she's so cool" a little too loudly.
"Wow," the host says with fake awe, elongating the 'o' sound to make it sound really sincere. It's not, Mira can tell. She always can. "Who knew Huntr/x's very own Jeong Mira was a prodigy — ballet, medical school, and idol training. Impressive, right ladies and gentlemen?"
He looks out into the audience, giving them a wink as the light above them flashes the word 'Applause'.
"She really is," Rumi affirms confidently after the thundering sound of applause settles. "Mira has always shown that she's in a class of her own. Not to mention she's incredibly dedicated to everything she puts her mind to."
"Yeah!" Zoey chirps along, patting Mira's leg twice and letting her hand linger a little longer than is acceptable for public appearances. "It's always nice to have someone with medical knowledge around, too. Especially with how clumsy I am!"
That gets the audience to laugh and shift the attention away from Mira. Zoey's good at that — playing up the silly, clumsy act around an audience to take pressure away from Mira and Rumi when questions get too personal or hit nerves that are not meant to be seen. She excels at breaking the tension, at creating space for each of them to breathe when the walls feel like they're closing in.
More importantly — and much to Mira's delight — she's good at making hosts feel backed into a corner. Yes, Zoey is sweet to a fault, Mira loves that about her. Everyone loves that about her. But she knows how to weaponize it, too. She's well aware that no one would dare push back on the sweet maknae on national television or anywhere with an audience. So she uses it to her advantage when she feels someone has stepped too close or pushed too far.
Works like a charm, as expected. The host looks between all three of them, taking a deep breath and flipping through the cards in his hands before setting up the next question.
"Medical school?" Zoey asks with amusement between gasped breaths, fingers tightening around Mira's hair.
Mira smiles, lips warm against Zoey's skin as she places a soothing kiss on the blooming hickey beneath them. "This time it's actually true."
Zoey's laugh, melodic and warm, fills the space around them. It's hypnotizing. Mira swears that it's Zoey's siren call, or at least it was for her. She would follow the sound of her laugh across the world if it meant she got to hear it every day for the rest of her life.
"Yeah?" Soft hands move to cradle Mira's face as Zoey brings her in for a kiss, sloppy and wanting. It tastes like love and devotion with a pinch of mirth. "Just like how you spent some time as a cook in a Singaporean hawker centre or how one summer you sailed across the Mediterranean or how you are the youngest wildlife photographer?"
It's Mira's turn to laugh this time, because of course Zoey has kept track of all of her bullshit answers to hosts throughout the years.
"No, this time it's actually true," she answers, meeting Zoey's eyes so that she knows that Mira is being sincere. "I graduated early and was accepted into medical school. Went to classes for about a week before Celine approached me."
"What were you going to specialize in?"
Mira hesitates for a moment, looking away from Zoey's questioning eyes. No one's ever asked her this before, not her parents or her friends, and for some reason it makes her feel vulnerable, seen.
Zoey's thumbs caress her cheeks, the way they always do when Mira lets her in to some of her most guarded thoughts and secrets. "Of course," she says softly, placing a kiss on the bridge of Mira's nose.
"Plus," she clears her throat, searching for a way to stop her cheeks from heating further, "it pays to know anatomy."
"Yeah?" Zoey tilts her head to the side curiously, not catching on as fast as she normally does.
"You've never complained," Mira says with a lopsided smirk that earns her a lighthearted smack on the shoulder.
