Sunbae...Nim? | @mychaerie broadcast station hallway, waiting room corridor
Sunny hadn't expected to run into anyone in the hallway outside the waiting rooms, let alone her. He clocked the blonde hair first, then the face, and his stomach did something embarrassing before his brain caught up to who exactly he was looking at. Cherry. Han Chaeri. The girl whose group's comeback he'd had on loop in his earbuds for the better part of a month earlier this year. He kept walking, because stopping dead like a fanboy wasn't the vibe he'd built for the cameras, but he made sure his path crossed close enough to hers that a nod wouldn't look forced.
"Hey," he said, easy, like his pulse wasn't doing something ridiculous, "Sunny. RIIOT."
It felt strange introducing himself to someone he'd been watching from the audience side of a screen for years, but different companies meant no guarantee she'd know his face the way he knew hers. He kept his hands in his pockets, working hard to look like a guy who ran into sunbaes all the time and not like someone who'd replayed "Attitude" enough times to know every ad-lib. "Good stage today," he added, nodding toward the direction she'd come from, keeping it short, keeping it cool. There was a whole list of things he wanted to ask her -- what was next for I:RIS, whether the comeback rumors had any truth to them -- but none of that felt like a day-one conversation, so he let it sit. For now, cool was the move. He'd find his way back to her eventually.