( ✧ . ✲ 애라 ( @aerakh ) !! ➡ 근원 )
there’s a sudden rush of sadness that comes over her, and much to her dismay the younger’s words are indeed true. the female standing in front of her is no longer the little kid that had entered the practice room of legion that one afternoon, no, she’s transformed into a beautiful, strong, and independent young woman. one that aera knows she can trust, but at times like this, the older still finds herself being a bit overprotective.
the exact opposite of her true nature.
she’s very much withdrawn, completely stuck inside of her own mind, and most of the time, insensitive. the only exceptions to this behavior are her members. as a trainee, with the finalization of their group growing near, aera made an effort to change. being the eldest of the group, she took on the responsibility of caretaker and protector. making sure the others knew that they always had a person to turn to, a shoulder to lean on, and an ear always ready to listen. that would never change, no matter how much time had passed.
“…you’ll always be my baby.” gentle eyes fall upon the other, as the older female she pouts, but soon a smile comes to replace it. her hand reaches out to pat the younger’s long locks and she sighs.
and she knows the other will be fine. after all, yoare is just going to hang out with some for awhile. but old habits die hard, so aera tries once again to convince the maknae.
“can’t you just text me when you get there? and also when you leave? you know this old woman worries. i just want to make sure you get there safely, okay?”
as with most idols, yorae can draw a finite and pronounced line between her true personality, and the secondary presence she’s crafted for the faction of herself that goes professionally by jasper. the young woman had done and seen a lot in her life, but never as much as she had in the years she’d trained for debut. despite being a firm believer in grasping and embracing the beautiful aspects of the earth around her, no amount of goodness could be enough to eradicate the truth surrounding the general consensus that the world is a cruel place, swarming with evil and opportunity for said evil to grow and multiply.
of course that description is far from encompassing all of the world she knows, but it modifies just enough of it for yorae to have been caught off guard by the netizen sub-universe that has established infamy for forcing idols to their humble knees. she had been no exception to that - despite never having stood on too much a pedestal to begin with. this looming threat, added to the mentality she endured which threatened her physicality constantly, times were a lot less than easy for her. she was away from home, struggling to repair her relationship with her mother, practically killing herself from how little she was eating and anxious from the unforgiving promise of stardom. someone had to be there for her.
and aera had always been that someone.
truthfully, all of reign check had done more for her than she could ever repay. the three near-strangers that had become her sisters over a vigorous training period and the years since its end, they’d brought her further out of her shell and into the world than ever had she expected --- they’d brought her more progress than she had ever seen, and ever would see, on her own. but aera, even while she is only five years yorae’s senior, had been a practical mother to her. half a decade can make quite a difference when one is almost thirteen and the other seventeen.
she’d always been there. always. though the maknae’s blood family couldn’t necessarily help the distance that had grown between them; the fact that yorae had to endure it was unchanging. the constant fighting between she and her mother, the near disappearance of her sister due to having to work constantly to support her child, and the death of her father - it often left her feeling as though she had no one to turn to. and though the eldest of the group had appeared cold and intimidating at first, she’d taken that role before yorae could see it coming. and the younger woman had never felt more thankful for something she hadn’t asked for.
this reflection about her, the corners of the younger’s lips turn slightly downward into a sorrowful frown. she can see how her words had affected her senior, in spite of their truth - or perhaps, especially because of their truth. her bag pressed to her side, her hand on the doorknob, she freezes. then, with a weighted sigh, she lets the duffel bag fall to the floor, beside the mess of shoes garnered over days of any one of the four women flinging them off with exhaustion at the threshold to the dorm. she nearly runs across the room to where the eldest stands, and presses her into a tight hug - her head resting on the matriarch’s shoulder, despite yorae having long since become the taller of the two.
“you know, unnie ... i didn’t really want to go to that party, anyway. i’d rather spend the night with someone that loves me.”
