20 Questions
20 QuestionsIrene believes that you can learn a few things about a person when you share a room with them.
So when their manager gave her two hotel key cards saying that she and Wendy were going to room together, Irene couldn't be any happier. It's the first time they're going to be roommates and Irene is beyond ecstatic. Out of all the girls, Irene thinks that Wendy is the member she knows the least and it confuses her. They've been friends for around three years already and they constantly talk with each other everyday, but Irene still thinks that she doesn't really know Wendy yet. To her, Wendy was like an open book, written in a language she couldn't understand. But tonight, maybe she'll be able to read a few of the pages.
---
Irene sits at the edge of the bed situated beside the floor-to-ceiling window of their hotel room, phone in hand and gaze admiring the city lights.
"What are you doing, unnie?" Wendy asks when she comes out of the bathroom after removing all her makeup.
"Just uploading our little selca-turned-video a while ago."
"Were you able to upload it successfully? Or did you get confused with Instagram's functions again?" Wendy smirks when she nears the bed.
Irene tries to kick her but her legs are too short and all it takes is for Wendy to take a step back to be out of Irene's reach, and she laughs while Irene pouts.
"I know how Instagram works, Wendy!" she defends.
"My, my, looks like our grandma's been catching up with our generation," the other girl teases.
Irene grabs the pillow next to her and throws it at Wendy, hitting the shorter girl square in the face. "I'm not a grandma! I just don't use SNS often."
"Uh huh. And the only time you use it is to tell everyone that we're roommates for the first time?" Wendy points out when she peers over Irene's shoulder and sees the caption of the video.
Irene just shrugs. "I also told them about the beautiful night view here."
Wendy sits on the bed next to Irene and turns toward the window overlooking the city. "Well, Shosho unnie wasn't kidding about the view. This is absolutely breathtaking."
The two girls admire the amazing view of the bright lights illuminating the city, and Irene hums as she mindlessly traces the outline of the buildings on the window.
"Osaka is so beautiful at night."
"It is," Wendy agrees before turning to face Irene. "Not as beautiful as you though."
Irene flusters and Wendy only laughs when Irene throws a light jab at her arm.
"It's so funny how you still get shy whenever someone compliments on your beauty."
"You're just teasing me again."
"Maybe," Wendy hums before smiling warmly. "But it wasn't a lie, unnie. You really are beautiful."
Irene doesn't know why she suddenly feels butterflies in her stomach, flapping their wings all over the place.
"It's just such a shame that someone so beautiful can still be a bit slow when it comes to technology sometimes."
And for the second time that night a pillow hits Wendy's face.
---
Wendy suggested that they watch a movie while Irene picked a movie to watch on TV. Sometimes they would hear loud noises from outside and they were sure that the two playful maknaes were pulling pranks on their poor innocent Seulgi once again ("Should we check up on them?" Wendy asked, being the concerned mother of the group. "No, I think they'll be fine," Irene answered.) Soon after the movie, it was a little past midnight and Wendy decided that they needed to get some rest for the second day of the concert tomorrow. As much as Irene wanted to still stay up and just hang out with Wendy, she knew that the latter was right. So the two girls went to bed, bidding each other a hushed "Good night".
But Irene has trouble sleeping and she doesn't know why. All she knows is that she can't. After fifteen more minutes of tossing and turning, she knows that she wouldn't be able to get any wink of sleep just yet.
The older girl turns her head to her right only to see the back of Wendy's shirt. She shifts her body and lies on her side, now facing her roommate's back, and whispers in a soft voice, "Wendy?"
Wendy peeks over her shoulder and whispers back, "Yeah?"
"I couldn't sleep," Irene sighs.
Wendy turns around so that she's facing Irene and makes herself comfortable in her new position. "Me neither."
The proximity between the two is so close now, they might as well have been sharing a single bed instead of a queen size bed. Irene always knew that Wendy had a bit of furry eyebrows, but seeing her this close for the first time suddenly makes Irene want to caress Wendy's eyebrows and feel its fuzziness at the tip of her fingers.
Stop having weird urges, Joohyun! Irene tells herself.
"Do you wanna play a little game? It might help you fall asleep," Wendy suggests.
Irene readjusts her head on the pillow and asks, "What kind of ga-"
Her breath almost hitches when Wendy shuffles closer, reaching out to tuck a locket of Irene's hair behind her ear.
"Your hair kept falling over your pretty face," she says.
"Oh, t-thank you." Irene's not sure if she's thanking her for the nice gesture or the compliment but she hopes the night light wasn't bright enough to expose the warm blush quickly rising in her cheeks. "So w-what game were you saying?"
"Ever played 20 Questions before?"
In the subtle darkness, Irene could still faintly make out the familiar warm smile on Wendy's face. And for a brief moment, Irene has this crazy thought that Wendy might be a piece of the moon. Because how else can she still look so bright and beautiful even under the dark?
---
"Let's set up some rules first," Wendy says as she finds a comfortable position on the bed. They are now both sitting up, cross-legged across each other and knees almost touching. "The object, person, or place we're going to let each other guess should be something personally important to us. If the person guessing gets it right then the other one should explain why that thing is important to her."
"And if the person guessing gets it wrong?"
"Then she loses and receives a flick on the forehead as punishment."
"Okay, I'll go first and you guess!" Irene says excitedly. She pauses for a moment to think of what she wants Wendy to guess. Giving it a final thought, she nods at Wendy. "You can start asking questions."
"Alright. Um...is it an object?"
"Nope."
"Is it a person?"
"Well, relevant," Irene answers, unsure.
"Uh...is it related to a person?"
"Yes!"
"Hmm," Wendy muses. "Is it part of a human body?"
"Yes, yes," Irene nods.
"It's a !" the younger girl immediately answers with a big victorious smile on her face as if she's already won.
Irene reddens and hits Wendy with a nearby pillow.
"Y-Yah! Butts aren't the only b-body parts that I like. I'm going to consider that a question so you only have fifteen left."
"Aw come on, but are there any other body parts that you like as much as butts?"
"Yes. Fourteen questions left!"
Wendy gulps when she realizes her mistake.
"Okay, okay, just give me a moment to figure it out."
Wendy asks a few more questions about which area the body part is located until she gets close.
"Is it a hand?"
Irene nods but there's a mischievous smirk on her face and Wendy doesn't have a good feeling about it.
"What are you smiling about? Didn't I get it right?"
"Well, I wasn't going to make it that easy for you. I'm thinking about a specific person's hand."
"Hey, that's not fair!"
"You never said that it should be general. And you said it should be something important to me so this hand can't be just anybody's."
"Fine," Wendy grumbles. "But with the amount of people you do skinship with, it could be anyone we both know."
Irene wants to make this more interesting and give Wendy a clue but she can't. So she speaks in a language she knows well and hopes that it would be enough.
Cold fingers slide its way between Wendy's warm ones and Irene smiles knowingly. Wendy doesn't want to assume that the sweet gesture meant something more but she asks anyway.
"Is it my hand?"
And Irene gives a final nod.
"Really, unnie?"
"Yeah." The older girl looks away shyly when she feels Wendy's stare fall upon her.
"So...why my hand?" Wendy asks.
"Well, I'm not really sure how to explain it, actually..." she admits while rubbing her thumb against the back of the younger girl's hand. "Your hands are always warm and it reminds me of you."
"Goes well with your cold hands, don't you think?" Wendy chuckles, giving Irene's hand a light squeeze before letting go. Irene tries not to frown at the sudden loss of skinship but manages to smile when Wendy exclaims "Okay, my turn! You can start guessing."
"Mm, is it an object?" Irene starts to ask.
"No."
"A person?"
"Yep."
"A family member?"
Wendy shakes her head and Irene frowns which makes Wendy laugh. "You didn't think I would make it that easy for you, did you?" she mimics Irene.
"Hey, I'm the one asking questions here," Irene reminds with a pout. "Um, is it someone from Canada?"
"Nope."
"So it must be someone from Korea then?"
"Yes."
Irene pauses for a moment to think and categorize the people Wendy personally knows in Korea.
There's the company, the managers, the stylists, the trainees, and - oh!
"Is he or she one of our sunbaes?" Irene knew that Wendy was particularly thankful and held a lot of respect for their seniors.
"They're important to me but no, that's not the person I'm thinking about."
Irene tries the other people on her list but Wendy shakes her head to each question. Irene's list keeps getting shorter and her questions are starting to run out. Her eyebrows furrow and Wendy reaches out to ease them.
"I can see your brain working from here."
"You're awfully touchy tonight," Irene notices.
"Like how you were with me during the concert today?"
"I'm always touchy."
"Ah, well that's true," Wendy agrees. "Anyways, you shouldn't be thinking too hard. Given the questions you've been asking me, you're not so far off."
"Is it one of our members?" Irene asks when she realizes that she missed a particular category on her list. How stupid of me to forget the girls themselves! Irene berates herself.
"There you go," Wendy nods encouragingly.
So now there are four choices, but she only has one question left to answer. Irene thinks that it might be Seulgi because the 94-liners are pretty close but Wendy shakes her head when she senses what Irene is about to ask.
"It's not Seulgi if that's what you're thinking. I just saved you from wasting your last question."
If it's not Seulgi then who? Joy? Maybe, since Wendy has expressed from time to time how much she's a big fan of Sooyoung. Yeri perhaps? Also a possible answer because Wendy treats her like a daughter. It could be any of the two maknaes.
Irene carefully goes through her options.
Could it be me? she wonders for a moment. For some reason she doesn't understand, Irene wants to be someone important in Wendy's life. But she's not so sure if Wendy thought of her like that and she's too scared to ask. Irene thinks that it was better not knowing than having to deal with disappointment.
"Is it Yeri?" she finally says.
Wendy smiles and Irene thinks that she won the game but Wendy flicks her forehead.
"Ow!" Irene whines while rubbing the reddening spot.
"You lost!" the younger one exclaims. "Sorry, unnie. I was thinking of someone else."
Irene frowns. "If it isn't Yeri then it must be Joy."
The game is over and it wasn't even a question, but Wendy still answers and shakes her head anyway.
"Have you ever thought that it might be you?" she asks.
"M-Me?"
Wendy has that same warm smile again and it makes Irene feel so fuzzy inside that she wonders if any of this was really happening right now. It feels like a dream but she hopes that it isn't.
"It was always you, unnie," Wendy says sincerely. "And even though you lost I'm still going to tell you why you're important to me."
Wendy takes both her hands and breathes in deeply.
"I like you, Joohyun unnie," she confesses. "More than just a friend."
Irene still thinks that this might be a dream and that she might've accidentally fallen asleep while playing 20 Questions with Wendy. But last time she checked, she didn't have any weird sleeping habits like that.
"You're not t-teasing me again, are you?" Irene asks carefully.
Wendy shakes her head and Irene takes a moment to ask another question.
"Since when?"
"I don't know when it started," Wendy says as she looks down. It's not the first time Irene sees Wendy this vulnerable. She only got to see this Wendy twice. Once, before they debuted when Wendy was doubting herself if she could do become a kpop artist. And another time when Irene found a terribly homesick Wendy crying alone in the bathroom, holding a picture of her family close to her chest.
Wendy bites her quivering lip and continues, "I only realized what I felt when I saw you MCing on Music Bank the other day when you made a mistake."
Irene slightly grimaces when she remembers that day. How could she even forget it? She was an MC and she messed up her line on a live broadcast. The sickening feeling at the pit of her stomach begins to grow until it eventually fades when Wendy cups her cheek to wipe away a tear. Irene didn't even realize that she had started crying.
"It wasn't your fault, unnie. You made a mistake but everyone else also does. I just... I just wish I could've been the one to comfort you during that time." Wendy sighs and looks back up to meet Irene eye to eye. "That was when I realized that I like you more than a friend. When I saw Bogum comforting you at the end of the show, I... It bothered me. I wanted to be the one to hold you by the shoulders and tell you that it's okay. I wanted to be the person who could make you feel better. I wanted to be yours, unnie."
Silence falls among the two girls. And in that moment, Irene feels as if she had lost her ability to speak.
So she acts.
And Wendy's heartbeat races when a pair of soft lips land on hers.
---
Irene is right. You do get to learn a few things about a person when you share a room with them. At the end of the night, the two girls learn a little about each other and their selves.
Irene learns that Wendy can easily make her blush.
And Wendy learns that Irene likes her back.
THE END
A/N: Help me, I don't know how to write fluff anymore. I am a bit disappointed with the final outcome of this one-shot since I was a little bit under time pressure while writing it hahaha. Plus, I wanted a more exciting game of 20 Questions for Wendy and Irene here but...meh, they were trying to sleep, not keep themselves even more awake. But anyways, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO RED VELVET! #1YEAROFHAPPINESSWITHREDVELVET
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