It didn’t take long after Wheein moved in for her to discover that Byul was a bit of a gambler by nature, it also didn’t take long after that discovery for her to exploit it anyway she could. 

“Unnie, I bet you my share of the ice cream that Yong-unnie thinks I’m cuter than you,” She had said once, early on into their friendship. Across from her, Byul’s eyes flashed with the challenge, and she reached her hand out.

“You’re on.”

The moment Yong strolled out from the bathroom, hair wrapped up in a towel turban and wings still dripping water on the floor, Wheein pounced.

“Yong-unnie! Who’s cuter, me or Byulie-unnie?”

“Wheein.” Yong answered in a deadpan, not even looking in their direction, just opening the door to her and Byul’s room and closing it behind her to get dressed. Sweet, sweet victory.

“Traitor!” Byul called out to the angel. She was smiling though, and Wheein got to enjoy twice as much ice cream that week. 

From there the bets progressed slowly but steadily. It was easy to goad  the demon into betting on things that Wheein knew would be easy wins for her. Things like which one of them could run up the stairs to their floor faster while Wheein was in wolf form or waiting to see whether Yongsun would ask if they wanted tteokbokki for the third time that week. One time, Wheein even managed to persuade Byul into betting which of them could get more strangers at the grocery to blush with just a look.

It was a close thing. Byul almost won but Wheein managed to turn it around by the skin of her teeth and the careful combination of wearing her baseball cap backwards and using her puppy dog eyes. The poor girl stocking shelves never stood a chance.

Suffice to say, it was a fun way for the two of them to bond. Majority of the time, Wheein won. Sometimes Byul did, and when Hyejin came along that just added a whole new layer to their little bets.

“I bet you ten thousand won that Hyejin mixes her blood into a smoothie instead of drinking it straight,” Wheein had muttered under her breath. She was on the sofa, sketching out an idea for an exhibit. Byul was right beside her, watching TV. Hyejin had woken up mid- afternoon and was currently rummaging through their kitchen for something to eat.

“Deal,” Byul had muttered back, not looking away from the TV. A corner of was quirking up into a grin though.

They didn’t even bother looking towards the kitchen, both demon and werewolf just listening intently as their vampire roommate had moved slowly about the kitchen, grabbing bowls and utensils and clanging about with the pots and pans. Eventually they had heard the telltale sounds of the freezer opening. Wheein had stilled, straining to make sure her wolf ears could pick up every sound.

“This is probably a good moment to mention--”  Byul had said, so low that only Wheein could hear her. She hadn’t let her finish though, holding up a hand the moment they both heard Hyejin pouring a slush of frozen blood into a cup.

However, instead of the telltale whir of a blender, what they had heard was microwave opening and closing, followed  by the unmistakable whir of it heating up Hyejin’s daily blood intake.

Wheein had glared at her. Byul’s smile back then could only be described as nothing short of demonic. 

“Unnie broke the blender last night, and she left today to get it repaired.” 

She had slammed a pillow into Byul’s face before handing over the money. 

Through the years they ended up having small running bets, things just became second nature to them after living so long together as roommates and friends. If Hyejin hung her coat on the third rung of their coat rack instead of the fourth, Wheein owed Byul a hundred won. If Yong invited them to watch a horror movie on a Friday, Byul had to do Wheein’s laundry the next day.

Which was why when Wheein woke up that morning and saw Byul on the sofa, with a bowl of cereal on her lap and her head pillowed on Yongsun’s shoulder, she decided it was time to kick things up a notch. 

“Good morning!” She called out as she hopped down the stairs, she could feel her tail wagging from the seam in the shorts she wore to bed. 

“Morning!” The Unnies called out in unison, waving at her from the sofa. 

She had to time it well, because, and Wheein knew this without the shadow of a doubt, if Yongsun knew nothing, it would make everything twice as funny. “Do we have anything other than cereal for breakfast?” She asked.

“There’s some bread and breakfast sausage in the freezer if you’re up for something more continental.” Byul said through a mouthful of milk and cereal.

“Do you guys want any?” Wheein counted three seconds, hoping the angel would take the bait.

“Me!” Yongsun said, there was a beat and then, “Actually, I’ll make it, you can sit down, Wheeinie.”

She gave herself a mental high-five as she sat down, purposefully choosing the solo armchair beside the couch. It didn’t escape her notice how Byul’s knee pressed against the spot on the couch where the angel had been. She wondered if that was an unconscious tick. She peered over at the kitchen to make sure that Yongsun was still cooking before grabbing her opportunity.

“Unnie,” she said, pitching her voice just a little bit lower, “wanna make a bet?”

Byul grinned. “What did you have in mind?”

“I will cook your breakfast for a month if you manage not to engage in any physical contact with Yongsun-unnie. For a month.”

The Byul’s eyes flashed with something like irritation made Wheein all the more confident. 

“Define lack of physical contact.” The demon said.

“No touching, hugging, hand holding, tickling, or anything that involves your skin coming into contact with hers.”

“We sleep in the same bed.”

“Sounds like a YOU problem.”

Byul eyed her warily. Wheein could see the cogs in the demon’s brain thinking it over. She peered back at the kitchen. Yongsun was already scooping a batch of sausages onto a breakfast plate. The toaster had four slices of bread in it. 

“What else do I get?” Byul asked, already leaning back into the sofa, her arms crossed around her torso. Her empty bowl of cereal was balanced on the triangle of space her legs made as she crossed her legs in front of her. Already, subconsciously turning herself into a ball. 

“What?”

“You’re asking me not to touch my girlfriend for a month. I need to get more out of it than just free breakfast if I win.”

She frowned, but conceded. In for a penny, in for a pound. Besides, Wheein had no intention of losing this one. “If you win, on my next full moon, I’ll let you dress me up and take me for a walk along the Han.”

The demon’s grin turned sharklike. “And if you win?”

“You make me breakfast for a month AND I get to dress you up in something skimpy and girly and take you for a photowalk along the Han.”

Byul’s glare came at the same time that Yongsun announced the sausages and toast were ready. Wheein held her ground.

“Any other terms?” The demon asked.

“If Yongsun-unnie finds out, whoever accidentally tells her is the loser.”

“Deal.” The demon said, reaching a hand out to shake Wheein’s just as the angel came back into the living room, a plate of sausages and toast balanced on each hand. When Yongsun reclaimed her spot at the sofa, Byul scooted away a few inches so that their knees wouldn’t touch like it had been before the bet had been made. The angel didn’t notice, already preoccupied with the sausages and toast.

Wheein didn’t bother hiding her grin. It was going to be a fun month. 

The first days were funny. Wheein tried to take as much of her art home with her if only to watch Byul slip up and reach out to brush Yong’s hair behind her ear, only to catch Wheein’s eye, glare, and then clench her hand into a fist and return it to her side. 

After the first week, Hyejin had caught on.

“I want in,” The vampire said, blunt and outright between the three of them while Yong was in the bathroom.

Byul and Wheein exchanged a look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” The demon said, smoothly and without missing a beat.

“You can cut the crap,” The vampire waved her chopsticks dangerously close to Byul’s eyes. “Wheein gave me all the details. I want a cut.”

Wheein snorted into her stew. “Meaning?”

“Meaning I also want free breakfast and to come along and take pictures of my own at the Han River if Byul-unnie loses.”

Byul gave her a hard stare, but her smirk posed a challenge. “But if I win you have to prepare my dinner for a month AND I get to request the first song you sing at the club everyday for a week.”

Hyejin shrugged, “Fine.”

It was at that moment that Yong returned from the bathroom, wiping clean hands on a paper towel and taking her normal seat at the table beside Byul. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Hyejin-ah’s setlist,”  Byul said automatically, turning back to her soup.

Yong hummed, looking between her roommates before turning back to her food. “Byul-ah, pass me the bean sprouts.”

On a normal day, everyone knew that Byul would have scooped the sprouts onto Yong’s plate herself and Yong would have to touch the demon’s wrist to tell her when to stop. Hyejin and Wheein resolutely did not look up from their stews.

Byul carefully slid the side dish over, stopping just short of Yongsun’s plate and continued eating. 

The next day, Wheein caught the tail end of Yong asking Byul to get something off the high shelf in the kitchen just as she was coming home from the studio. The demon was perched on a stool, and unconsciously, Yong was reaching out a hand to steady her. 

Wheein whipped her phone out in case she needed photographic evidence.

Instead, Byul quickly swiped the extra tupperwares from the shelf and unceremoniously dropped it right in front of Yong’s face, prompting the angel to reach out both hands to catch the item.

Byul looked over her shoulder at Wheein and smirked.

The next three weeks were a series of near misses and almosts. With the month about to end in a few days, Wheein was starting to panic. She had even resorted to having Hyejin check up on the Unnies in their bedroom every time she came home from the club just to be sure that Byul wasn’t cheating behind closed doors.

“She has a pillow between them and Byulie-unnie’s scooted back so much I feel like she’s about to fall off the bed,” Hyejin grumbled to her one afternoon while Byul was out on a shoot and Yong was at work.

On the day before the month was up, Wheein was at her wits end. She was already planning how to stage an accident that involved Yong or Byul accidentally bumping into each other when she came across Yong crying in the kitchen.

“Unnie! What’s wrong?”

Immediately, Yong turned around, hiding herself from view and wiping frantically at the tears in her eyes. “It’s nothing.” Her voice cracked. “Uhm. Byul is eating out tonight and Hyejin will be at the club. Do you want to order in for the two of us?”

“Unnie,” Wheein approached, placing a hand on Yong’s shoulder. “You can talk to me.”

“I think--” Yong’s voice broke again. “I think Byul might be breaking up with me.”

Wheein wasn’t sure whether to break out into laughter or to feel guilty. 

“What--I mean. I’m sure it’s--”

“She’s practically ignoring me, Wheein.” The angel continued. “She won't even look at me or touch me anymore.”

Okay. Guilt it was.

“Uh. Unnie. You should--” She scrambled for a way to make this work in her favor. “I bet if you tried to hug her, things would turn out okay.”

Yong shook her head. “She hit her head last week. When I tried to reach for her she dodged out of the way so fast she almost fell. She doesn’t want me anymore.”

From where she stood, Wheein could just hear the soft pat of teardrops hitting the kitchen sink. She sighed, and hoped that Byul would be okay with sunny side-up eggs, toast, and some form of fried meat for a month, because that was the extent of her cooking skills when it came to breakfast.

“Actually, Unnie.” Wheein began, “We, uh, made a bet and--”

“What?”

She took a deep breath, and spoke louder, “We made a bet that if she didn’t touch you for a month, Hyejin and I would cook her meals.”

“Would you cook mine too?”

Wheein stepped away. “What?”

“I seem to recall--” A voice came from behind them. When Wheein turned around, it was just in time to catch Byul strolling back into the apartment. She hadn’t heard the door unlock, which meant it must have been ajar all this time. “That if anyone told Yong what the bet was, they’d lose.”

She felt drop open. When she turned back to look at Yong, the angel was smiling sheepishly at her. A bottle of eyedrops concealed in her palm.

“You--” She pointed an accusatory finger at both Yong and Byul. “You planned this?!”

“Actually,” Yong said, “I woke up to Hyejin sneaking into our bedroom last week, and then a few days after that I heard her telling you that Byul was keeping up her end of the bet.” The angel crossed her arms in front of her chest, her wings spreading out behind her, “I drew my own conclusions after that.”

Wheein stared at Yong guiltily, barely managing a sheepish grin. “But what about--” she turned to Byul.

“She texted me and told me to come home early and wait outside the door until I heard the signal.” At that, Byul turned her smile to Yong, “That was the signal, right?”

Yong shrugged, her smile was smug though. Wheein couldn’t help her outright groan of frustration though. “You know, you didn’t have to go through all this.” She told Yong, if a bit reproachfully. “The month is ending tomorrow. Byulie-unnie would have won either way.”

“Aw, you missed me that much?” Byul walked over and placed a kiss just at Yong’s shoulder. 

“Don’t be gross,” The angel said with a fond roll of her eyes. She didn’t pull away when Byul wrapped an arm around her shoulders though. “Besides,” she said to Wheein. “I wanted free breakfast and dinner too.”

She sighed. “Fried egg and bacon sound okay for tomorrow?”

Yong and Byul wore matching grins as they nodded.

"Oh, Wheeinie?" 

She turned to look back. Byul's grin was now pure evil and she had what looked like a tiny vest and a funny looking--oh.

"Can't wait to see you in these!" Byul taunted, waving the dog clothes in her hands around. 

She scowled, and made sure the Unnies could hear the very canine growl she let out over their shared laughter.