“But, unnie, you promised!”

I sigh as Yerim and Sooyoung continue to alternately whine and pout at me while I studiously ignore them in favor of observing the cake that I’m baking in the oven.

They’ve been badgering me to take them out and treat them to dinner ever since Yerim came home from school two hours ago.

“Unnie,” Yerim whines, facedown by the countertop and I sigh in resignation.

“Fine! Get dressed. We’ll go out after I finish this,” I tell them while gesturing at the cake. They both cheer happily, bounding towards their shared room with a bounce in their step.

I take my phone to text our manager that there’s been a change of plans. Since they thought that Joohyun-unnie and Seulgi are the only ones leaving the dorm today. They left at different times but I’m 99.9% sure that they’re together right now.

We don’t really need to update them about every single thing but I figured they should know that there wouldn’t be anyone left in the dorm for the next few hours.

I receive a text of affirmation from our manager so I proceed to put the cake in the fridge and get ready to babysit our giant maknaes for the evening while Joohyun-unnie and Seulgi enjoys their date.

•••••

We eat at this restaurant near the Han River and by the time we’re done, the sun has set. Sooyoung insists that we take a walk along the river just as we did when we were trainees and I reluctantly agree. I glance at the two of them to make sure that their disguises are in place before we leave the restaurant and walk towards the bridge.

We wander around for about thirty minutes and I’m quite pleased that nobody’s managed to recognize us yet. I guess we’re really getting better at orchestrating our disguises.

We pass by a convenience store and the two little devils cajole me into buying them ice cream so I give up fighting and just give them enough money to buy one each and one for myself.

I’m sitting on one of the benches near the store waiting for them when I notice two very familiar figures a few meters away. They’re both lying in the grass, with a picnic blanket laid under them of course, with their shoes off. Snuggling, by the looks of it, with their fingers intertwined.

Now this is quite normal, as the Han River is quite a hot dating spot for young couples. What is not normal is that this particular couple are members of Red Velvet.

Damn it. Have they really given up on being discreet? What if they get caught?!

I glance around surreptitiously for people that might be spying on them but all I see is another couple by the edge of the river and a bunch of high school students on the bench beside the one I’m sitting on. Nobody seems to be paying attention to those idiots so I sigh in relief.

Granted they’re both really well disguised, and I’m pretty sure that the only reason that I can tell it’s them is because I’ve lived with them for the past three years. And that I actually know that they’re together.

But then, you can never be too sure. For all I know, maybe a Dispatch reporter is sitting on a tree somewhere with their shiny cameras. So I take out my phone to text Seulgi to get their asses out of here when Sooyoung and Yerim return holding our ice creams.

“Here’s yours, unnie,” Yerim hands me my ice cream and I take it from her hands absentmindedly, still trying to text Seulgi with my other hand.

Sooyoung sits beside me and comments, “Aw, that couple looks so cute! And they’re lying by the grass! Let’s do that too sometime!”

I freeze and glance at Sooyoung, then at the oblivious couple a few meters away. It’s a good thing that Sooyoung doesn’t seem to realize who they are. But then, she bounds up and start walking towards the couple. 

“I’m going to ask where that person bought that picnic blanket. It looks like those disposable ones,” she says as she quickens her steps.

I sit there frozen, my mind whirring on what I can possibly do to stop what is about to happen.

“Park Sooyoung! Joy! Come back here!” I yell loudly, catching the attention of the high school students on the other bench. Which was my goal.

I hear them whispering to themselves, trying to decide if they heard correctly, and I decided to take off my mask and that seems to do the trick. We suddenly get approached and bombarded by a bunch of fans and I look at Sooyoung, satisfied that she’s also preoccupied with signing a fan’s shoe.

A quick peek towards the previous place where Joohyun-unnie and Seulgi were cuddling earlier tells me that they already left as soon as the people started converging on us.

Great. Mission accomplished.

•••••

We come home exhausted, with Yerim and Sooyoung complaining all the way.

As soon as I enter our unit, I’m greeted with the sight of a bunch of groceries by the countertop.

“Seungwan!” Seulgi jumps up excitedly, “We bought you some baking stuff!”

“Oh really, I wonder what for,” I raise an eyebrow at her and she shrinks away guiltily.

“You know.. for..” she trails off while gesturing around when Yerim pipes up.

“Seulgi-unnie, tell Seungwan-unnie that she should treat us out again because she outed us earlier to some high school students and we nearly had an impromptu fansign right there by the han river!”

“And on our day off!” Sooyoung adds.

By this time, Joohyun-unnie’s gotten out of her room and is staring at me guiltily.

“Oh, don’t worry, Joohyun-unnie and Seulgi will treat you for me,” I grin at them, “Right, Joohyun-unnie?”

Joohyun-unnie jumps at being addressed so suddenly but she immediately nods enthusiastically, “Right, of course! Anything you want.”

I snicker at the couple, who both look like puppies caught playing with a toilet paper roll.

“Great, now that’s settled! I’m going to change.”

I grin to myself, feeling pretty pleased as I pass by my new baking goods.

Sometimes, being a white knight has its perks.