𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨, nishimura ni-ki.

vi. 2 years of absence

࣪ ׂ JANG HAEIN! ៵🐇 ⋆
⌗ present time, real life

"okay, i'm gonna open the doors now." the automatic car door slides open, revealing the ephiany members. fans and fansite was cheering out loud, chanting their names.

everyone waved to the fans while walking slowly, trying to greet them all one by one and saying a thank you for coming to their recording.

without realizing, behind them was enhypen's van, waiting for them to get into the building so enhypen could come out. but jungwon accidentally opened it beforehand without the manager's instructions, making engenes scream.

as soon as engenes start chanting the member's names, haein rushed her unnies to walk fast. she was trying to avoid ni-ki, incase he walks past at any second.

"why are you rushing us?" eunha asks. "she panicked because she was scared she would meet her boyfriend~" hyerin teases. but eunha seemed more confused. "after our van, it was enhypen's! and did you know, that ni-ki was haein's former friend?"

eunha gasped, as she didn't know this fact before. "hey haein, is this true? you were—" haein puts her hand on her unnie's mouth before she could spill the entire tea to some staff nearby.

"unnie! don't say that too louddd!" eunha giggled, still not believing what her ears picked up.

♡

"waah! shall we meet ephiany, the 'queen'dom of fairy and angels with their halo on top who successfully stole fan's hearts with their charms? welcome!"

"2, 3, epiphany, unlock our world! annyeonghaseyo, ephiany imnida." the group waves to the camera happily.

"woah, congrats for your comeback ephiany. please say hi to your fans who's watching!" the girls smiled. "hello! we had a comeback recently with our first full album 'Halo'." eunha waves.

"you've come back with a happy and soothing title song, please introduce it to us!" the mc looks at jia, who's in the center. "our songs have the same name as the album, halo, please give it lots of love as we worked hard to show it to you!"

"that's so cool, refreshing and soothing music suits you guys really well. it must be your signature sound, right? not really is the song warming, i saw there's an addictive move to the dance."

"lastly, i heard halo is a song for people who's angelic. shall we pick the member that would be the most suitable for the term angelic?"

"jia!" the rest of the members points at her. "me?" she laughs confusingly. "why is that?" eunha makes a pair of wings with her hands and puts them behind jia, making her appear as a literal angel with wings.

"because jia is the type of person with a great and charming personality, and not only is that, but also because she has the innocent and cute face! and angels also protects good people, as she protects our team really well." gyuri answers.

"wow! she really is suitable for an angel, so when can we check ephiany's stage?" the mc asks again.

"you can check our charming stage just in a moment! in the mean time, why don't we meet the addictive stage of aespa's 'drama' first? music, cue!" hyerin answers meanwhile the members wave and cheers in the background.

the camera zooms out, meaning the interview was over. the group them bids goodbye and bows to the mcs, before exiting the frame with their waves and a heart forming with their hands.

♡

"we did such a good job at the interview today, hehe. well done! i raised you well." jia tells her members as they were walking to their dressing room.

"wait! can we stop first? i want a drink from the vending machine." haein stops the five of them. "well, hurry! after aespa's, it's gonna be ours. we'll wait for you in the dressing room. bye bye."

eunha sent gyuri to go together with haein so she won't be lonely. gyuri patiently waits for her best friend while she was entering her money.

"yah, haein, don't look up!" gyuri then hides haein's petite body with her legs. "why? let me see!" the curious girl then sees a pair of two boys from enhypen, walking around nearby. it seemed like they were searching for something.

haein quickly grabs her can of soda and stands up, linking her arms with gyuri and tried to sprint away. but it was too late as the two boys has spotted them already. "hello, excuse me!" they then stopped on their tracks.

"i'm sorry if we're taking up your time, but we're here to ask you to do our sweet venom dance challenge for our promotion video."

"yes, sure! we still have so much time, so.." gyuri answers after some silence. sunghoon and jake smiles at them.

first, they shoot the challenge for halo first with the girls teaching sunghoon and jake. thankfully, they were done after a few minutes. the two boys then teached the pair of best friends the dance move for 4 minutes, and finally they got it right. just as haein was refixing her hair to shoot the video, a voice then came up to them, running.

"hyung! heeseung hyung was looking for—" he then stopped at his tracks. when haein turned around, her jaw dropped. it was ni-ki. nishimura ni-ki, the boy who ditched her years ago without any explanation, was standing in front of her.

"oh, just in time that you came, ni-ki! can you help us shoot this challenge video?" sunghoon holds his laugh, while handing him his phone.

"umm.. okay." he hesitates for a moment, breaking eye contact with haein. she then looks at gyuri with a shocked expression, confused too. she nudged gyuri's arms in which she also returned one.

throughout the filming, ni-ki's gaze was only fixated on haein. he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her again for the first time in 3 years after he completely left her, in which he also admitted that it was his fault.

he also recognized that she was now different. she used to have bangs back then with brown hair, and she was more fit now. he didn't even notice that the sound has stopped, as he was too busy staring at the girl.

all of them had a short conversation with each other, congratulating each other for their comeback except haein and ni-ki. they were both silent. "um, hey haein-ssi." he spoke up first, with his head down. she froze, it has been a long time since ni-ki called her name.

"hi, riki." she kept her gaze low too, still too shy as it was too sudden. "congrats for making it this far." she gave him a low thumbs up. "thank you, it was also thanks to you i did." he answers, but mumbled the last part hoping she wouldn't hear it.

"yo, thanks ni-ki. haein and gyuri, thank you so much! see you around." they both bow at each other, before parting ways.

jake and sunghoon didn't forget to look at each other, then at their maknae, before laughing at him. it looks like this was planned by the two of them and heeseung beforehand.