Days passed.
And the silence between Kai and Yuna widened like a stage with too much distance between the leads. Their management kept the groups busy—interviews, variety shows, recording sessions. From the outside, everything looked perfect. But inside, nothing felt right.
The tension bled into rehearsals. Yuna moved through choreography like a ghost. Kai, equally distracted, kept missing his timing by half a beat. Their duet, once filled with electric chemistry, now felt hollow.
"Again," barked the choreographer. "You two look like strangers on stage."
That hurt more than Yuna expected. She glanced at Kai. He didn't meet her eyes.
---
Social media was relentless.
Every time she opened her phone, there were edits from them. Some romantic. Some suspicious. Some accusing. Theories circulated—rumors that the two idols had fallen out. Some speculated it was a PR stunt gone wrong.
Yuna shut off her notifications.
---
At the ECL!PSE dorm, Kai sat alone in the practice room long after everyone else had left. His fingers hovered above his keyboard, unmoving. The melody from the stage duet played on loop in his head, but no new lyrics would come.
He replayed the rehearsal in his mind—how he couldn't look at her. Not because he didn't want to.
But because he did.
Too much.
His phone vibrated.
Jay: "Are you okay?"
Kai didn't respond. He just stared at the screen. Then typed, deleted, and finally wrote:
"I'm breaking the rules."
---
The next day, during a short break between filming segments, Yuna found a note tucked into her locker.
No envelope. No signature.
Just one sentence:
"Let's find the music again."
Her chest tightened.
She turned, looking toward the hallway. No one there.
Later, she walked onto set for a joint interview. ECL!PSE and ST4R were seated on a talk show together, the host poking fun at their recent viral popularity.
"So, Yuna," the host grinned, "you and Kai broke the internet last week. Any comments on that chemistry?"
Polite laughter filled the studio.
Yuna hesitated. Then smiled. "I think sometimes music speaks louder than rumors."
Kai, across from her, smiled for the first time in days.
---
After the show, as they walked past each other in the corridor, he brushed her hand lightly.
No one saw.
But she felt it.
It was small.
But it meant: I'm still here.
---
That night, she returned to her room and found a link anonymously emailed to her. A private music file. No subject. No name.
She clicked.
It was a new version of their duet—slower, rawer, layered with acoustic chords and a new harmony.
Her voice and his, intertwined in a way they hadn't yet been on stage.
And there, near the end, a new lyric Kai must have written:
"Even if the world turns down our volume, I'll still find you between the notes."
Tears welled in her eyes.
He hadn't let go.
And neither would she.