It’s pouring in Sapporo. All 5 members are tired, physically spent, and inevitably a tad irritable.

They all walk under umbrellas held by the staff, heading as quickly as possible to the company van as the loud and incessant clicks of camera apertures spur them on.

The group’s babies lead; Yeri and Joy are practically sprinting to the car, their managers barely able to keep up with them. Wendy and Seulgi, already soaked to the bone, walk more leisurely than the younger members, waving at their fansites and smiling through their blatant discomfort.

Irene, however, brings up the back of the group. She’s holding her own umbrella and monitoring the other members in front of her.

“Seulgi, Wendy, watch the puddle-” she squeaks out hesitantly, in the midst of posing for pictures and trying to avoid the obstacles in her path as well.

Seulgi turns to face Irene and nods a quick ‘Thank you.’ Irene wishes her heart didn’t beat as quickly as it did, but that was another problem, one that wasn’t as pressing as the wind blowing even more rain at her.

Upon reaching the van, Irene can’t help but notice that Yeri and Joy had taken the most comfortable, separated seats in the van, so all three of the oldest members were forced into the cramped and dreaded back seat.

Wendy and Seulgi go in first, scrambling over Joy’s long legs in a vain attempt to avoid the last of the rain in the awkward transition from umbrella to car.

“You know, you really should take better care of us. You insufferable little-” Wendy hisses at Yeri, who happens to be recording the whole thing, cackling violently in the background of the video she plans to upload on their shared Instagram account later.

Wendy is just grateful she noticed the phone before her words got the better of her, because that was an entirely different wringing out that was waiting to happen (besides the one concerning her sopping wet clothes at the hotel of course).

Wendy took a seat behind Yeri, most likely to kick her seat, a la temper-tantruming child on an airplane, which left Seulgi in the middle. Irene, who was still navigating Mount Sooyoung at the entrance to the van, panicked a bit. She already had her hands full with watching over her members and being caught in the rain, but NOW she had to deal with none other than Miss Kang Seulgi, who was a whole different train of thought that Irene did not particularly want to delve into at the moment. But thanks to Brat #1 and #2, she was forced to.

Irene can’t remember when it happened, but one day the little touches on the small of her back, the eye smiles, and soft words got to her. The way she danced, the way she sang. It all struck a chord in Irene’s heart, and she doesn’t know what changed. Seulgi was the subject of Irene’s daydreams, midnight fantasies, and rude awakenings. She tries not to think about what could or couldn’t happen, all she wants is for these feelings to go away because the last thing she wants to do is ruin her own career, or the career of the woman she’s been pining after for the last year. To say the situation isn’t ideal is a massive understatement. And the whole cruel irony of it all is that Irene’s been losing sleep over it all, which naturally makes her mind wander to what it would be like to hold Seulgi’s hand, or even kiss her.

“Joohyun?” Seulgi’s soft voice croons from the middle seat. She pats it gently. “Sit down and at least TRY to relax for me, okay?”

Irene swallows hard and nods, and rigidly sits in the cramped seat next to Seulgi. The door to the van slides shut, and the only light in the van comes from Yeri’s phone screen (which was uploading the video of Wendy).

Wendy was in fact kicking the back of Yeri’s chair-

“YERIM DELETE THAT RIGHT NOW. DON’T YOU POST THAT!” Wendy shrieks, only to see the “Post Successfully Uploaded!” notification pop up at the top of Yeri’s screen.

Defeated, Wendy slumps in what little space she has, cursing Yeri under her breath as she tries to take a quick nap on the way back to the hotel, harmonizing with Joy’s already loud snores.

Irene sits like a porcelain doll, with the pallid complexion to match. Her hands are folded in her lap and her head is pressed against the headrest as hard as humanly possible. The less she moves, the less she has to focus on the fact that Seulgi’s thigh and shoulder are flush with her own.

The van’s been travelling through Sapporo’s streets for about 10 minutes now, the car oddly quiet considering that they had just finished the first concert in their much anticipated Japanese hall tour, and Irene is quite literally counting down the minutes until they reach the hotel.

She tenses at the thought of having to share a room with Seulgi, a frightening circumstance considering her unresolved feelings and the lack of planned room accomodations.

“Joohyun?” Seulgi says quietly, after feeling Irene tense. She moves and grabs one of Irene’s hands, gingerly interlacing their fingers together.

“I’m sure we did great, okay! After all it was our first concert in Japan, so there’s room for mistakes! Not that you made any, though.” Seulgi continues, rubbing the back of Irene’s hand with her thumb.

Irene, in the midst of her panic, manages to force out a mumbled “You too, Seulgi,” squeezing her hand lightly, but ultimately pulling it away. Irene sees the way Seulgi’s face noticeably drops at the lack of contact, and Irene is hurt more than she would care to admit.

After a long, and regret-filled, 15 minutes, the van arrives at the hotel.

The members all begrudgingly, and soakedly, unloaded themselves and their luggage from the van and sloshed inside the hotel.

A staff member that Irene was unfamiliar with handed her 3 plastic cards- “Room keys.” he said rather gruffly. She couldn’t blame him though, it was late and they all were still soaked to the bone after the torrential rain.

Irene stared at the room keys and tried to figure out how she could arrange them all so that she wouldn’t have to share a room with Seulgi, internally shrinking at the thought.

“Alright, we have 3 rooms. How is this gonna work? I would suggest that the kids room together, and that me and Seungwan share a room because-”

“It’s okay! Seungwan can have her own room, she already got cheated out of the good seat in the van.” Seulgi interrupts, a cheesy smile plastered on her face.

So that means. She and Kang Seulgi would be. Alone. In a hotel room. Irene’s face pales at the thought, but Yeri and Wendy had already grabbed their keys before she could think about it too much.

“I guess that leaves you and me..” Irene trails off, already thinking of excuses so she wouldn’t have to share the same bed with none other than Kang Seulgi.

“Don’t look so upset!” Seulgi smiles again, and grabs Irene’s hand and leads her up to the hotel room.
---
Irene, acting under the pretense of ‘altruistic leader,’ let Seulgi use the shower first so that Irene could attempt to reign in the massive amount of panic she felt.

She was debating whether or not to sleep on the floor, what she should say (if anything at all) and how she was gonna get out of this alive.

Just as the final draft of her “Irene Survive Sleeping In The Same Bed As Seulgi” plot was coming to a close, Seulgi walked out of the bathroom. She had a towel around her torso, and one wrapping her hair, and the steam leaking from the shower made Seulgi look like a goddess among mortals.

Or more so than normal, Irene thought. She felt a blush rising to her cheeks, and said, in a thinly veiled attempt to cover her , “Ah, you took a hot shower huh? It’s even heating me up..”

“Or you could just admit that maybe it’s the thought of me only being covered by towels that’s making you blush?” Seulgi quipped, taking her hair out of the towel and wringing out her hair.

Without a word, Irene quickly gathered her pajamas and rather sloppily rushed into the bathroom, slamming the door on her way in. Needless to say, her shower was much colder than Seulgi’s.

Irene walked out of the shower at a time that she deemed wouldn’t be questionable, but long enough for Seulgi to hopefully forget about her lack of acceptable social behavior at the thought of her being .

She gingerly opened the door, hoping that maybe Seulgi had fallen asleep already, but to her dismay, Seulgi was laying on the bed in her pajamas, playing on her phone. Irene, without saying a word, sulked over to her luggage and organized her belongings before begrudgingly walking to the bed and laying down. She was rigid again, and still shocked after Seulgi’s bold comment.

“Goodnight Seulgi.” She said quietly, hoping to evade any further discussion.

“Goodnight, Joohyun.” Seulgi crooned back at her, the smirk masking her face evident.

Seulgi plugged in her phone and got up to turn of the lights, so Irene took the time to turn away from Seulgi, further trying to avoid her and any possible conversation. Irene felt the bed dip behind her as Seulgi laid down. There was some silence, and Irene remained stoic on her side of the bed, wishing that she could finally fall asleep and end the most awkward night of her life.

The bed squeaked as Seulgi shifted in bed, and Irene tried not to make any noise as she felt Seulgi cozy up behind her and an arm snake around her waist.

“I hope you know that I like you too, Joohyun.” Seulgi whispered into the shell of Irene’s ear.

“...w-what?” Irene stuttered, flipping her body around to face Seulgi. “W-Who said that I liked you?”

Seulgi giggled lightly and pulled Irene closer to her.

“You’re so silly Joohyun, just kiss me already.”