"What took you guys so long?" Yeri groaned as soon as Irene and Seulgi entered the dorm, laden with grocery bags. "We were getting hungry."

"Hey," Wendy exclaimed. "What the heck? Why did you buy so much stuff?"

"What are you talking about?" Seulgi reached for her phone and put it in front of Wendy's face. "You texted me a list of things entitled 'ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL' so unnie and I had to circle back to the aisles to find these."

Wendy turned to Joy with a glare. "Joy-ah!"

Joy looked unapologetic. "I knew they wouldn't buy these if it came from me." 

The girls started on dinner with Seulgi and Wendy in charge of the cooking while the rest went about the remaining tasks. They spent dinner talking animatedly about all kinds of topics not related to their comeback. The group made a pact way before that they wouldn't talk about work whenever they had time off. That way, they can still feel like they're able to live a life outside being idols. It also greatly helps in preventing burnout.

Right now, they were in the middle of dissecting Joy's current love life.

"For the last time," Joy groaned. "He's not ghosting me! He's just busy these days."

"Oh yeah?" Irene laughed. "Busy with what?"

"He didn't exactly say.." Joy said in a small voice. 

"Just admit it," Seulgi said as she chewed. "He got tired of waiting since you don't have time to meet up these days."

"No," Joy retaliated. "He said he was cool with our setup. He just said that he's gonna be busy as well because he had a lot on his plate."

"I know that guy," Yeri pointed to Joy with her fork. "If you ask me, he's insecure and intimidated by you, that's why he ghosted you."

"He didn't ghost me!" Joy repeated.

"Aish, you don't deserve guys like that, Joy-ah." Wendy shook her head. She let go of her glass to interwine her hands with Joy. "You should be someone who would  not hold you back. He should be understanding, supportive, and secured in life. Because you deserve the best."

"Oh my Lord, that's so greasy." Joy flinched and everyone laughed.

"Greasy Wannie's back at it." Seulgi guffawed. 

"Whatever," Wendy was also laughing. "It's the truth and I stand by it."

---

After dinner, the group migrated to the living room to finally settle their argument of who would last longer on vodka. The bottles and snacks were lined up on the table and the girls got settled according to their team.

Yeri proposed that they play a bunch of games as a warm up.

The first game: Sam-Yuk-Gu.

"So we just clap whenever a three, six, or nine is mentioned?" Irene reiterated.

"Yes," Joy replied. "And if you get it wrong, you take a shot. Easy, right?"

"I have a bad feeling about this.." Wendy grumbled. She turned to Seulgi who just pouted back. Historically, the 94-liners always at playing games and had only ever tasted victory either by cheating or just pure dumb luck.

"Then get the bucket ready." Yeri laughed mischieviously. "You guys ready?"

"Sam-yuk-gu! Sam-yuk-gu! Sam-yuk-gu! Sam-yuk-gu!"

"One." Yeri started.

"Two." Joy said

Irene clapped.

"Four." Wendy continued.

"Five." Seulgi added.

Yeri clapped.

"Seven." Joy seemed unfazed.

"Eight." Irene said.

Wendy clapped earnestly.

"Ten." Seulgi slightly sat up straighter.

"Eleven."

"Twelve!"

Irene clapped again.

"Fourteen." 

"Fifteen."

"Sixteen!" Yeri said then she immediately put a hand to . "Oh crap!"

"Drink!" 

Yeri bregudgingly accepted her punishment.

They tried again and they got as far as thirty-three at Irene's turn. She clapped and turned to Wendy.

"Yah, stop!" Joy made an X with her arms. "Unnie, you should take a drink."

"What?" Irene asked incredulously. "Why?"

"You should clap twice, since it's thirty-three." Seulgi answered. 

"I didn't know we had to clap twice!" Irene protested. 

"The rules said you have to clap if a three, six, or nine is mentioned. In thirty-three, have to clap twice since it had two threes." Yeri laughed. "Everybody knows that."

"Well, I don't." Irene huffed.

"That's what you get for never getting drunk and playing silly games with us." Joy stuck her tongue out as she handed Irene a shot glass. Irene noticed that it was slightly fuller to the brim than the previous ones.

The game continued on until the bottle was half-empty. Irene never lost another round while Seulgi, Wendy, and Joy dreadfully lost a lot of times.

The second game: Titanic.

Wendy was more enthusiastic about this one because it just involved luck and timing, both of which were within her capacity. Basically, a shot glass was suspended in a glass of beer and they all just had to keep it afloat as they pour alcohol in the glass. The person who sinks the glass loses and as a punishment, must drink the contents of the whole glass, beer and all.

"I hope Irene-unnie loses." Yeri snickered. "I'd like to see you drink all that in one go."

"In your dreams, Kim Yerim." Irene confidently answered. 

As the game went on, it wasn't long before they all got anxious as the bottle bobbed precariously, shifting from the weight of the vodka. Joy shouted shrilly after her last attempt made the glass swing dangerously to one side but was able to recover and stay afloat at the last second.

Irene gulped. It was her turn next and she was sure that if she miscalculated just a tiny bit, the glass would definitely sink.

"Come on, unnie." Wendy urged. 

Joy and Yeri inched closer, careful to watch closely in case Irene loses this round.

Seulgi just had an amused look on her face. 

Irene very carefully (and very slowly) tipped the bottle of vodka to unload the alcohol onto the glass. She was almost out of the woods until she heard Seulgi giggle faintly. She looked up to see Seulgi animatedly typing on her phone with a smitten look on her face. The split second it took Irene to look up to Seulgi caused the shot glass to topple over and the other girls collectively whooped.

"You sunk it!" Joy said gleefully.

"Hold on, I gotta film this!" Yeri fiddled with her phone excitedly. 

"What happened?" Seulgi looked up from her phone, wide-eyed. "Did I miss it?"

"Unnie sunk the Titanic!" Wendy laughed. "Now, drink!"

Irene inwardly cursed herself for being so distracted. She grabbed the glass and downed the drink without any second thoughts to the cheers of her members.

Irene didn't know which was worse, the bitter taste of the alcohol or the bitter feeling at the pit of her stomach when she saw Seulgi happily sneaking glances at her phone to text Naeun.