"what do you mean?" wendy knows her heart is racing under joy's arm. she didn't expect joy to ask a question that lines up so well with what she is thinking. 

"the thing about your day? and do you want anything from me for your birthday?" 

"oh. it's nothing. this is all plenty." joy squeezes a little, shimmying her arms somehow even closer to something that looked impossibly intimate. she settles her chin on back onto wendy's shoulder and huffs.

"i don't think so, but if you say so. just tell me whatever you want. i'll do it." there's a moment where nothing happens. the show falls quiet. they fall quiet. just before wendy's phone buzzes and the show dialogue resumes. 

she doesn't answer it. it's probably her grandma wishing her happy birthday, so she should. but she doesn't. doesn't even look at it because she has other questions. something more urgent. something more dire. 

"do you want me to be your girlfriend?" it's mumbled. barely escapes the shackles of wendy's self-restraint. she half hopes joy didn't hear it over the ghosts haunting the little pair of twins on her tv. 

she knows what she wants. she wants joy to be her girlfriend. that's for sure. ask the questions she doesn't know the answer to. 

joy shifts. she clears her voice, and wendy needs her to speak faster. answer faster. say something before wendy combusts. there's an uncomfortable warmth blossoming in the pit of her stomach. she needs joy to wash it out already, to do something. 

"i asked what you wanted," her arm drops from above wendy's waist. she fidgets with the remote, and she sounds small. so small. scared. just as scared of an answer as wendy was. "but is it okay that i do?"

wendy brings her hand up to joy's cheek, pushing joy's face closer to hers. she turns her face, nose buried against joy's cheek bone. "yeah." mumbling against joy's cheek, she presses a kiss just beside joy's lips. "of course it's okay."

and the wave crashes over. the fire in her is out. her head is above water. above sooyoung's water. she can finally breathe again. and she breathes in the cool, refreshing ocean breeze. 

and a little bit of joy.

"you're kinda sweaty."

"i was working hard for you, and you made me nervous!"

“i know. thank you.”