Yeri was making a strange face.

Well, stranger than usual for her, Joy noted. The youngest seemed to be watching something rather engrossing on her phone, but she had her headphones in, so Joy couldn’t tell what it was. She leaned closer to take a look.

“What are you watching? … Is that Wendy?” Joy asked.

Yeri didn’t quite turn her attention away from her phone while she answered. “And Eunji. Here, look at this…” she said as she rewound the video a bit to show Joy.

Joy rolled her eyes as she popped one of Yeri’s earbuds out of her ear and placed it in her own. “What are they drinking? What show was this for again?”

Yeri scoffed. “Does it matter? They’re taking a love shot. Look at how embarrassed Wendy looks!” And Yeri dissolved into giggles, though those soon turned into unnerving cackling.

Joy eyed her askance. “... Should I even ask?”

“Well, don’t you think Wendy looks awfully lonely ever since Seulgi and Irene finally got together?” That had been another long headache for Yeri.

Joy narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Wait… what are you thinking?” She wasn’t sure she was liking where this was going.

“Don’t worry about it,” Yeri said, patting Joy on the shoulder. “Let me make some calls…”

Nope, Joy didn’t like where this was going at all.

+++

Yeri didn’t have Eunji’s number, but she did have Jisoo’s number.

“Hello?” Jisoo greeted cautiously. It wasn’t often Yeri called her out of the blue.

“Jisoo!”

“Yeri? Is everything alright?”

Yeri could already hear wry amusement in Jisoo’s voice at her excited greeting. “I need your help! I’m initiating plan Get Wendy a Date!”

“Get- what? For Wendy?”

“Yes!” Yeri insisted enthusiastically.

Jisoo was silent for a moment, thinking back to all of the times she had seen the adorable vocalist, both on and off the stage. It was cute that Yeri was so adamant about this. “Fine, I’m in. What’s the plan?”

“Well…”

After one rather complicated game of phonetag, Jisoo, Yeri, and Joy found themselves in a conference call with Jennie, Nayeon, Minah, Yoojung, Doyeon, and most importantly, Chorong.

“So let me get this straight. You want me… you all want me…” Chorong began, “to give you Eunji’s number so that you can set her up on a date with Wendy?”

“Yes!” eight voices chorused.

“Minah?” Chorong pleaded. “Even you are in on this?” she asked the Girl’s Day member.

“Listen, I’m just along for the ride at this point,” Minah confessed, still reeling from being used as yet another link in the chain of Yeri’s quest for Eunji’s phone number. Still, the idea amused her, and she didn’t see the harm in it.

“Wendy’s so nice, but she’s also pretty shy. She’d never ask for herself,” Joy explained.

“She always does everything for us, and just stays at home all day. She needs this!” Yeri insisted.

“She’s really nice, I promise,” Jisoo confirmed.

“And adorable,” Nayeon added, which meant quite a bit coming from the TWICE member.

“Oh, I know she is,” Chorong admitted, pausing for a moment to consider why she knows this, and who she received this information from.

She gave a long, tired, but still slightly amused sigh.

“Fine. I’ll give Yeri her number, BUT-!” Chorong paused dramatically, making sure she had everyone’s attention. “I want to know every. Single. Detail.”

+++

And that’s how the nine girls had ended up cramming themselves into a small restaurant waiting for their prey to arrive.

“So was it hard to convince Wendy to come?” Yoojung asked with a raised eyebrow. She had her arms crossed as she eyed the restaurant critically. It was out of the way, and hopefully wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention, being descended upon by so many idols. Doyeon wasn’t helping with the suspicion factor, however, wearing her sunglasses indoors in an attempt to be inconspicuous.

“Oh, it was pretty easy, actually,” Yeri said with disinterest. Joy looked awfully guilty however, making the rest of the girls pause and await an explanation.

“She… does know she’s going on a date with Eunji, right?” Jennie asked suspiciously.

“She knows Eunji’s going to be here,” Yeri answered vaguely.

“... We told her we were going to have dinner with Apink,” Joy confessed, pointing between herself and Yeri.

“Wait, she thinks all of us are coming?” Chorong asked, more than a little scandalized.

“Well what did you tell Eunji?” Yeri defended.

“Uh, well…” And now it was Chorong’s turn to be evasive.

“Well what?” Nayeon prompted, frankly enjoying the mess that was unfolding.

“Well, I may have told her I wanted to take her out for drinks...” Chorong finally admitted.

“At this rate I’m going to need a drink,” Minah muttered dryly.

“Oh my god, quick! Hide! I think that’s Wendy!” Joy whispered urgently, and the girls ducked behind a divide in the booths, praying their instructions to the waitstaff - requested after bribing them with autographs - would be obeyed.

Sure enough, a somewhat confused and nervous-looking Wendy entered the small restaurant and glanced around. One of the hosts greeted her and told her that she was the first of her party to arrive. He led her to a table right across the divide from the nine conspirators and they carefully peeked over the partition to get a look at her.

“First to arrive?” they heard Wendy mutter in confusion. But just as she was pulling out her phone - probably to begin texting her other members to ask where they were - Eunji arrived.

Wendy dropped her phone on the table with a loud clatter in surprise, and Joy had to smack both Yeri and Nayeon as they snickered. The same host greeted Eunji and led her over to Wendy’s table.

“Wendy?” Eunji asked. The host stopped at the end of the table, clearly meaning that she was supposed to be seated. “W-what are you doing here?” A wide smile was already spreading across her face, despite her surprise.

“Hey…!” Wendy greeted awkwardly with a little wave. “Are you… the only one here?” she asked, looking past Eunji.

“The only one…?” Eunji said faintly, still not quite processing the situation. Still, she found herself sitting where the host beckoned, across from Wendy.

“Now ladies, can I start you off with some drinks?”

“Oh, we should probably wait for everyone else,” Wendy suggested considerately, too embarrassed to even glance at Eunji again.

“Pardon me, miss, but your reservation is for two tonight,” the host insisted.

“For two…?!” Wendy squeaked.

“Oh, no,” Eunji groaned, though she still couldn’t help smiling. Her suspicious gaze swept the room, and the conspirators had to duck back behind the divide in order to avoid being caught.

“Did she see us?” Yoojung whispered. She barely cleared the partition as it was, so hiding was fairly easy for her, but the taller girls like Joy and Doyeon had a more difficult time of it.

“I don’t think so,” Yeri whispered back as she pressed herself against the wooden divide.

“I’m so sorry,” Wendy immediately apologized, reaching her hands across the table in a distressed gesture. “I think I was tricked-” she began to explain, but Eunji laughed and shut Wendy up by taking those outstretched hands in her own.

“I don’t mind at all,” Eunji assured her, pressing Wendy’s hands together between her own. “Besides, you’ll be much better company for drinks than Chorong.”

“Hey-!” Chorong began to whisper indignantly before Jennie stepped on her foot to silence her.

With a wink at Wendy, who was rendered mute by Eunji’s charms, she ordered them a couple of drinks. “Oh, and a glass of water, please.” The host left them alone after that.

Wendy still wasn’t quite sure what to make of the situation. She had been expecting to see Eunji, which was nerve-wracking enough for her, but her one comfort had been the knowledge that the other Red Velvet and Apink members were supposed to be there as well.

But now she was here alone, with alcohol on the way, and Eunji smiling at her in amusement as she continued to hold Wendy’s hands.

“I hope this is okay,” Eunji ventured, seeing that Wendy was still a little tongue-tied. One by one, the voyeurs returned to their positions, peeking over the partition.

“Of course! Yes! Uh, I mean, we can at least try to make the best of it,” Wendy tried to finish calmly, and she was very relieved to see their drinks arrive. Even if it meant that Eunji finally let go of her hands.

“Good, because I guess I was being kind of shy about it,” Eunji began, pouring Wendy’s drink first and passing her the glass, “but I’ve kind of been meaning to ask you out like this-” Eunji found herself cut off by a violent coughing fit from Wendy, who seemed to be having trouble swallowing her drink.

Yeri snorted, and Minah didn’t even try to contain her long-suffering sigh. It was no wonder Wendy needed an intervention.

“Whoa, easy there!” Eunji laughed, though she was clearly concerned. She came around the front of the table and slid into Wendy’s side of the booth, which only increased the poor girl’s distress. Eunji gently rubbed Wendy’s back while she recovered.

“Sorry,” Wendy apologized after her coughing subsided. “It sounded like you were saying…?”

“That I wanted to take you out?” Eunji supplied with a grin.

“Y-yeah… that,” Wendy replied shyly.

Jisoo let out a quiet ‘aww’, and Jennie hooked their pinkies together.

“Well, I mean we’ve been texting off and on for how long now?” Eunji asked. Her eyebrow twitched when Joy sputtered from behind the divide, but she held Wendy’s gaze.

“Wow… I guess it’s been about a year now, huh?” Wendy answered, with a note of wonder in her voice.

“A YEAR?!” nine voices shrieked.

Eunji couldn’t take it any longer and she grabbed her glass of water and dumped it over the partition, eliciting even more screams. “Come on out here!” she commanded.

There was quite a bit of grumbling as the guilty party shuffled out into view in front of their table. Eunji stood up to address them, and Wendy carefully slid out of the booth as well, in shock.

“Yeri?”

“Really, Chorong?”

“There’s so many of you!” Wendy exclaimed while she made sure to bow to each one of them, except for her two very wet younger members.

“We were just trying to help!” Yeri protested.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Nayeon reasoned.

“I had nothing to do with this!” Jennie insisted.

“I just came for the show, honestly,” Minah admitted.

Before the infighting could escalate, Eunji held up a hand. “I’m surprised at you, Chorong,” she deadpanned, a note of mock disappointment in her voice. “Did you really get talked into this by a bunch of kids?”

“Hey!” Doyeon cut in indignantly.

Eunji slipped an arm around Wendy’s waist. “I can understand you doing this to me, but to poor Wendy here?”

Chorong smirked. “Why argue with results?” she asked, indicating the blushing Wendy with a nod.

Eunji returned her smirk but still wanted to check to see how Wendy was taking all of this. To her relief, it seemed that Wendy wasn’t even remotely angry at the troupe. Quite the contrary: Wendy was wearing the most adorable, shy smile as she looked at her feet.

“I can’t believe I went through all of that and you two already had each other’s numbers,” Yeri complained.

“This is what we get for trying to be nice,” Joy added. “We should really just stick to what we know.”

Yeri nodded her agreement, though watching the cloyingly sweet way Eunji was regarding Wendy made her think that maybe this had been worth it after all.

“I think I’m going to go ahead and order that drink,” Minah sighed, shaking her head.

“Not here, you’re not!” Eunji protested. “I’m not going to let you guys interrupt the rest of our date! Take them all home, Chorong!” she demanded.

After much protesting and shepherding, Eunji and Wendy were finally left alone again, and they took their seats on either side of the booth. Eunji refilled Wendy’s glass, and the two stared at each other for a moment in shared embarrassment.

Wendy finally gave an awkwardly laugh, breaking the silence, and Eunji sighed and laughed as well. She tentatively reached out and took one of Wendy’s hands again.

“Now, where were we?”

fin