Flash Fiction 8/14
Almost thought I wouldn't make this one, but in between following along with the D23 expo liveblogs I managed to finish the idea I had in mind 😊
EDIT: forgot to tag @flashfictionfridayofficial
Fandom: Kpop Demon Hunters (Sunlight Sisters focus!)
Rating: G
Word Count: 985
Warnings: None!
"Alright, girls: let's go over tomorrow."
Miyeong and Sihyeon's groans greeted their manager as she hustled herself into the greenroom, armed with an overstuffed binder and matching clipboard. Normally Celine would shush them, but after the two hours allotted for a fan signing ballooned into four her "social battery" (Sihyeon's admittedly apt words) was too depleted to offer more than a flaccid grunt that even the most sycophantic puppy would disregard.
"Can't we have five minutes?" Sihyeon didn't lift her arm from where it was draped over her eyes. "We just got back here…"
"You had five minutes," Kyung-ok responded unsympathetically, thunking! the binder on a table and flipping pages. "You used it walking here."
"Cece needs five more to decompress." Mi's voice was implacable. She didn't look up from her fingers massaging Celine's temples in her lap. "That was a lot."
"I didn't want to disappoint them," Celine muttered as she sighed and sunk into Mi's ministrations. Their fans were what placed them on the idol's pedestal, after all, and strengthened the Honmoon besides; how could she give them anything less than what was laid at their feet?
And while it was draining, giving and giving and giving of herself until she felt as flat and threadbare as a child's worn doll, it was just another part of the sacrifice the Honmoon demanded of its Hunters.
Mi and Sihyeon's lack of protest spoke volumes.
Kyung-ok, blessed with ignorance of starlight strands and what they kept at bay, nodded once as she snapped open her binder's rings. "Celine has the right idea, as always. Here:" Buzzing around the room, she handed a paper schedule to each girl.
Celine ran her eyes over the page and wilted.
"Mmm. You forgot something." Sihyeon's paper crinkled as she tapped a finger against it. "Time to breathe."
"Secondary importance." Kyung-ok waved away the biological necessity. "Consider it a compliment that everyone wants piece of you three on your anniversary."
That's right. A spark skipped in Celine's chest. Tomorrow was the anniversary of their debut.
The overused muscles in her face twitched into a smile. One year of performing with her girls, of watching the Honmoon dance with their audiences' souls, of being Hunters.
And since, through serendipitous coincidence, they debuted on the day they first met, the anniversary of her soul being complete.
The notebook in her nightstand drawer with a page covered in neat hangul detailing ideas for how to mark the day now doubly special flashed in her mind, a giddy feeling sparking in her chest.
Until she looked again at Kyung-ok's schedule.
The spark fizzled.
Arguably, devoting their anniversary to fan meetups and interviews, photo shoots and a live performance, was to be expected. But…she was human, and so she had hope.
She'd really wanted to do something special for her girls…
A silent chord of dismay wavered like a dirge through the Honmoon, and Mi's thigh shifted beneath Celine. "That's nice, but maybe we can…save a piece of us for us?"
"Seeing how it's our special day?" Sihyeon added where she was methodically creasing her copy.
Kyung-ok raised a brow (she had gotten used to a great deal in a year). "This is what the label wants."
The dirge sighed.
One year under the label's thumb.
Reluctantly rolling to a sit, Celine nodded at their manager, mask in place. "Of course, Kyung-ok-maenijonim."
Mi looped an arm around Celine's shoulders once the door clicked shut behind Kyung-ok and her promise to see them "bright and early"; Celine's head automatically leaned to rest on Mi's. "We'll find time for us."
"Yeah." Sihyeon's barettes sparkled her assent. "How hard can it be to sneak in a toast or something?" She finished her folding; a paper airplane now rested in her hand.
As Celine watched it sail effortlessly through the air, she felt her earlier dismay receding as her unnies' words sunk in, perfect kindling for the spark to sputter to life once again.
She smiled, looking forward to the moment they would steal.
---
They tried. By the Honmoon, they tried.
Lulls in activity, pauses between takes, seconds that gasped for air as they were shunted like freight from one engagement to the next; all were accounted for by the exacting meticulousness of Kyung-ok. She had been thorough with her darling schedule, guarding minutes like a miser would its gold, ensuring that not so much as a second slipped unaccounted through her fingers. Makeup artists and stylists were stationed in every dressing room they entered, treating the click of the doorknob like a starting gun, and the "five" the director called for during a run-through of the night's performance was claimed by a label executive bearing congratulations and news of a promotional deal that exercised their acting skills.
From the corners of her eyes, Celine watched their first anniversary slip away.
Rain pattered the roof of their car when they finally rode back to their apartment, limbs too heavy with the fatigue of seeing the clock turn to a new day to toast even an imaginary glass. Celine swallowed, mentally tucking away her notebook of anniversary plans. "We'll have other anniversaries."
"Tons," Sihyeon agreed, watching a raindrop zig-zagging down the window.
"And hey." The passing glow of a streetlight caught on Mi's smile. "At least we spent today together, right?"
Some of the day's dismay fell away as Celine smiled in the passing flickers of city lights. "Right." Forcing her arms to move, she grabbed each of her girls' hands, and smiled when they squeezed back. "Together."
Together.
The car, the streetlamps, the fatigue, and her girls' hands came back to Celine as she stood at the window of the hanok. The space beside her was cold as she stared through sheets of rain at the pair of gravestones and the puddles forming on the freshly-turned earth.
With shining eyes, she raised her glass to the graves and grieving sky.
"Happy anniversary, unnies."
