After Wendy has finished the last crumbs of her food, Irene cleared to gather the attention of her members.

“I have something to say.” She started. They all looked at her.

“I know that you all were concerned about what happened between me and Seulgi these past few weeks, and I apologize for all the confusion and for making you all worried. First of all, I would like to thank you all for helping us resolve our issues and we’ll gladly explain everything once we clean up the food and the dishes and after we all wash up.”

“I’ll do the dishes.” Joy stood up and immediately stacked the group’s plates on top of each other. “Yerim-ah, go take care of the leftover food!”

“Yah, slow down, will you!” Seulgi laughed as the two moved at top speed. “If I’d known you kids would be like this, I would have probably—”

Then she fell silent as soon as she saw Irene looking disapprovingly at her.

“Nothing. I would have probably done nothing.” Seulgi said in a small voice.

A few short minutes later, the four dongsaengs all sat in the living room, clutching pillows and listening to music while waiting for their unnie to come out of the bathroom.

Irene barely sat down on the couch when Yeri suddenly blurted out “So what happened?”.

“Okay.” Irene said calmly. “Hmm. How should I start?”

She looked at Seulgi, unsure whether to reveal everything or just the reason why they fought. But since the two maknaes would probably bombard them with a thousand questions, she decided to just tell the truth.

“Seulgi and I..” Irene hesitated.

Wendy has been nothing but supportive upon knowing the real deal between them so Irene never really gave much of a thought about how her members would react to the information.. until now. Irene started panicking because they never really thought this through. She felt scared thinking about the possibility that the maknaes might feel uncomfortable once they learn the truth.

“Unnie?” Wendy gently coaxed.

“Right.” Irene blinked rapidly. “Seulgi and I are—”

“Banging!” Joy suddenly interjected.

Irene’s eyes widened while Seulgi half-snorted and half-choked. She sputtered and coughed, causing Wendy to rub her back.

Then she slapped the youngest on the arm. “I told you so! I told you they were doing it!”

“We are not b-banging!” Irene’s authoritative glare was undermined by her stutter. “And watch your language!”

But Yeri and Joy were just cackling. It took several minutes for the blush on Irene and Seulgi’s face fade and the laughter from the three to simmer down.

“We.. we have feelings?” Irene looked at Seulgi for support and she nodded. “For each other..”

“And the past few weeks have been complicated as we tried to wrap our heads around that.” Irene continued.

“And.. we—uh.. Seulgi?” Irene turned to Seulgi.

“We are not banging.” Seulgi nodded matter-of-factly. Irene rolled her eyes. 

"And we sincerely apologize," She looked at Seulgi pointedly. "For causing such a mess."

"Right, right. We're sorry, guys." Seulgi smiled sheepishly.

"Rest assured that nothing will change.." Irene went on. "Since we agreed that we won't act on our feelings and just give us a few more days and everything will go back to normal."

The three just stared at the two of them.

"What the heck was that?" Wendy said disbelievingly. "It was like you were reciting from cue cards or something!"

“Yeah, did you rehearse that, unnie?” Yeri snickered.

“No!” Irene replied. “It all came from the heart.”

“You were completely useless, Seulgi-unnie.” Joy shook her head reproachfully.

“Well, what did you want us to say?” Seulgi pouted.

“Like, juicy details or something!” Joy replied. “I heard from manager-oppa that you guys were full on making out on the set of Monster.”

Irene and Seulgi protested indignantly.

“No, we were not making out!” Seulgi denied. “It was one accidental kiss. Totally Joohyun-unnie’s fault.”

“Yah!” Irene yelled and Seulgi shrunk back. 

“Don’t they look so cute together?” Wendy nudged Yeri while smiling fondly at the two.

“So, let me get this straight,” Irene pointed at the maknaes. “You guys suspected that something was going on between us?”

“Duh!” Joy rolled her eyes. “You guys are so obviously in love with each other, it was so cute.. and then it was gross.”

“Totally.” Yeri nodded. “Joohyun-unnie’s heart eyes every time Seulgi-unnie opens —even when she says something dumb.”

“And Seulgi going on and on and on about Joohyun-unnie whenever she’s not around.” Wendy shook her head. “You guys are hopeless.”

“Not to mention the stealing glances whenever the other one’s not looking,” Joy added. “And the eye-ing Seulgi-unnie whenever she does something hot—ouch!”

Joy cowered because Irene smacked the back of her head with a pillow.

“I told you, you should give them more credit.” Wendy smiled at Seulgi.

“So, you guys are not.. weirded out?” Irene asked uncertainly.

“What?” Yeri made a face. “Of course not!”

“Yeah, sometimes, we even try to get you two to sit together.” Joy giggled.

“Really?” Seulgi’s eyes widened. “Aww, that’s so sweet!”

"By the way, unnie." Joy smirked. "I always knew you were gay."

Irene raised her eyebrows. "Really? But I never talked about it!"

"Saw it coming from a mile away." Yeri shrugged as she checked out her nails. "I mean, the way you're obsessed about butts.."

"Yes, and the story about the sunbaenim." Wendy laughed.

"And the eye-ing Seulgi-unn—” Joy dodged a flying pillow aimed at her.

“So..” Yeri looked at them knowingly. “You guys get nasty in the bathroom or wha—”

This time, Yeri was too slow to evade the pillow attack.

“All right,” Seulgi stood up. “This conversation is over.”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t even kissed?” Joy asked incredulously.

“Ack! Slowgi.” Yeri teased. “I knew it! I knew I had more game than you.”

“This is none of your business.” Irene said but she was blushing too hard for any of them to pay attention.

Even Wendy was chiming in with the jokes.

After they have had their fun, one by one the girls went off to their own rooms until it was only Irene and Seulgi left in the living room. The latter had been fidgeting for the past thirty minutes, sneaking glances at their leader who was immersed in her mobile game.

"Would you quit gawking at me?" Irene said without looking up from her phone. "You're distracting me."

"I wasn't gawking!" Seulgi pouted. "Well, I have a question."

"What is it?" Irene finally focused her attention on Seulgi.

"We are friends again, right?" Seulgi asked shyly.

"Of course." 

"Then," Seulgi held out her phone. "Would you take a look at my photos? Let me know which ones look best."

Irene half-smiled. She missed how adorably dorky Seulgi is.

"Fine, let me see."

The two girls hung out and talked until it was well past midnight. For the first time in months, they both felt like everything was normal, and at times, Seulgi would look at Irene a little bit longer, and Irene would let her hands linger on Seulgi's arm and give it a gentle squeeze. It's not even in a way that they both noticed; it's simply the way their bodies craved each other's presence.

Seulgi looked at the other girl, animatedly waving her arms as she talked about her favorite show, and she smiled to herself as she thought,

I think I could live with this.