The first time Irene tries to confess to Seulgi is a few days after the noraebang.

Irene enters Seulgi’s room silently, watching as Seulgi sticks her hand deep into a pringles can, her eyes sparkling as she watches something from her laptop placed right in front of her. It’s an adorably soft sight to see compared to her fierce looks whenever Irene has to look at the back of her door. She still doesn’t have the heart to remove the poster, it feels like a waste to throw it away. To throw all of Yeri’s efforts away.

She’ll get this right this time.

“Seulgi-ah,” Irene says softly, worried that things might be awkward after everything that almost happened last night. They hadn’t been awkward at some of their other schedules before this, but Irene knows Seulgi has always handled work professionally. Personal agenda were always put aside while they were working to avoid conflict. But the leader’s not so sure about now.

Seulgi perks up at the sound of her name, but doesn’t seem shocked to see Irene in front of her either.

“Unnie!” Seulgi’s smile is wide, and Irene’s heart feels like it’s about to explode from that alone, “D’you wanna watch the Level Up Project with me? We never managed to finish season 3 together,” She offers as if nothing happened to them, with her right hand still stuck in the pringles can.

“Sure,” Irene agrees easily-- because she’ll take whatever she can at this point-- and Seulgi automatically scooches over to give Irene some space beside her on the bed.

“Sorry, it’s kind of hard to see the screen because there’s no more space,” Seulgi apologizes as she places the pringles can on the ground, wiping her hands with tissues. 

Seulgi’s room couldn’t fit a larger bed given its size-- because it wasn’t even supposed to be a bedroom until the dancer offered to take it so everyone would be more comfortable-- and Irene doesn’t see why Seulgi even needs to apologize to her for trivial things like this.

“It’s fine,” Irene tries to reassure her with a hand on her arm.

“Hmm,” Seulgi stares at Irene for a few seconds. They’re so close that Irene can see some of the chip crumbs around Seulgi’s mouth.

“I have an idea!” Seulgi smiles widely, and Irene can’t help but smile back, “Move in front of my laptop.”

Irene follows and soon enough, Seulgi’s shuffles backwards and strong arms soon wrap around Irene’s torso, and her head rests on the leader’s shoulder.

“Now we can both watch!” She says and lightly squeezes Irene’s waist. 

The leader tries her best to act natural and comfortable, trying not to think of Seulgi pressed against her form, with her legs around hers. She tries not to think about how the dancer’s larger stature engulfs her in a warmth that she never wants to leave. She tries not to think how domestic this all is, although this is how they’ve always been.

It’s just so much more different from before, now that Irene has feelings for her.

Irene reaches an arm out so she can press play, and they get lost in their own world as they watch their own show, continuing from where Seulgi left off.

It’s both her and Seulgi on the screen, with Seulgi offering Irene to watch a movie with her, much like earlier. Virtual Irene argues with virtual Seulgi, knowing that the latter’s already about to play a horror movie that she doesn’t want to watch.

“Seulgi-ah,” Irene nudges Seulgi’s knee with her hand as they watch themselves arguing on screen, “That was mean, you know,” She says and pouts involuntarily.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Seulgi says, and Irene can feel the movement of Seulgi’s head on her shoulder, “I protected you, after all.”

Irene rolls her eyes, and turns her head to look at Seulgi smiling softly at her. Their faces are much too close once again, but it feels different from the last time they were in this situation.

“Yeah you did,” Irene hums and decides to finally act on her feelings, “I love you, Seul-ah.”

Seulgi pauses at Irene’s words, looking at the leader and Irene is immediately worried. 

She feels like she shouldn’t have done that so suddenly.

“Aww,” Seulgi says, moving her head off of Irene’s shoulder as she leans her arms back instead of keeping them on Irene’s waist. The leader feels dread pooling in the bottom of her stomach. Where has she heard that tone before?

“I love you too, unnie! You’re the best!”

.

“Tragic,” Joy deadpans as she watches Irene nearly crumple a newly ironed dress.

“Shut up. Do you want to hear the rest?” Irene huffs and throws the dress into the unironed pile of clothes frustratedly.

“Okay, I’m sorry. That just… sounded exactly like Dahyun after Sana confessed.”

“I know,” Irene shivers, “I’m still traumatized by it… But I tried again anyway.”

The second time Irene tries to confess to Seulgi is just a few days later after the tragedy. She’s not so sure if this counts as an attempt.

They’re celebrating the news of Irene and Seulgi’s upcoming subunit in a bar. Irene doesn’t even remember how Yeri managed to convince all of them, but she’s sure that Joy’s probably her accomplice this time around.

Honestly Irene didn’t have any plans to try confessing again so soon. But she was in a particularly good mood that day with the announcement, and with the help of a few shots of tequila, Irene had the liquid courage she needed.

Yeri, for the first time in a while, cackles in her seat as she watches Wendy spit out a cocktail right back into its glass. The main vocalist’s face contorts into absolute disgust and Irene finds her eyebrow movements highly amusing. The leader can’t help but throw her head back and laugh as loud as Yeri, smacking Seulgi’s shoulder in the process.

“What the , unnie?!’ Yeri’s yelling and laughing so hard she might fall out of her seat. 

Seulgi’s barely holding on to her consciousness as she giggles like a child, her face almost falling into her glass. Irene wraps an arm around Seulgi’s shoulders, trying her best to keep the dancer upright.

“That was absolutely disgusting!” Wendy comments in a mix of Korean and English, “That thing was more gross than any of my pick up lines!”

Joy smacks Wendy in the shoulder, Irene’s sure that Joy only looks sober at this point as she stares unabashedly at her girlfriend in public, “Hey! None of your pick up lines are bad!” She exclaims.

Yeri and Irene share an eyeroll.