“Haaaappy biiiiirthday tooooo youuuuu!”

The sound of glasses clinking follows the (very messy) birthday greeting from Mina’s friends. They’re at an all-you-can-eat restaurant that her girlfriend found a few weeks ago, and Mina decided to celebrate there with their friends. They sip the champagne that Momo ordered and continue eating away, even if the place is about to close and they’re the only customers left, enjoying the live band performing their last set.

“Thank you for the champagne, Momoring,” Mina says to the girl right next to her.

“No problem, Mitang,” Momo replies with a wink. “Happy birthday.”

“I hope everyone is enjoying tonight!” the singer on the stage utters through the mic. “If anyone of you girls would like to sing, just come up here.”

“I do!” Nayeon immediately stands up when she says so. The other girls scoff and roll their eyes as Nayeon struts on her way to the stage and asks for Liar Liar by Oh My Girl, but Jeongyeon grabs her phone to take a video, anyway. The rest of the girls—Mina, Momo, Tzuyu, and Chaeyoung—start singing along and eventually dance the chorus. When the song finishes, Nayeon curtsies as well as bows, blurting out, “Happy birthday, Minari!”

She turns to the band’s singer who was doing the backup vocals while Nayeon was singing. “You’re good,” she tells her. “What’s your name?”

“The name’s Jihyo,” the singer responds. “And thank you.”

“Minari!” Nayeon yells through the mic again even if their table is right in front of the stage.

“What? Me?”

“Of course!” Nayeon answers her. “The birthday girl has to sing!”

With Nayeon’s initiative the girls start cheering “Mina, Mina, Mina” repeatedly, making the birthday girl blush even more.

“Come on, unnie!” Tzuyu urges her.

“Yeah!” Chaeyoung chimes in. “Girl you can do it!”

“Okay, okay,” Mina finally says, making the girls whistle in their victory. “But only if Momoring sings with me.”

“Eh?”

“Come on, Momo! You need to show off your voice!”

“But…”

“Come on… You always sing whenever we’re alone, anyway.”

“But that’s different!” Momo whines, wiping the sweat off her forehead with her palm.

“Please, Momoring? For my birthday?”

“Oh, alright.”

Mina and Momo sing their theme song Turtle by a group named Twice. Jihyo, the band singer, provides backup vocals for them as well from time to time. Chaeyoung notices Tzuyu staring at her so she gives her a nudge.

“That Jihyo looks cute, huh?” she whispers to the tall brunette.

“Oh, uh, r-really? I haven’t noticed.” Tzuyu gulps.

Chaeyoung scoffs at her friend. “You don’t fool me. We all know how much of a er you are for good singers.”

“Okay, yeah, she’s a really good vocalist, alright?”

“And real cute?” Chaeyoung adds.

“And real cute.”

Momo holds Mina’s hand (tightly) throughout the entire song, but Mina manages to make the girl sing the entire second verse on her own. Momo completely flushes when the song is over, but Mina congratulates her on the mic, even thanking her for singing on her birthday.

“Awwww, that was a cute performance!” Jihyo says through the mic. “Let’s give it up for the love birds.” The girls snicker but applaud for the couple anyway. Jihyo then asks, “Okay, we’re down to our last song, but before that, would anyone else like to sing with us?”

Jihyo turns to the girls’ table, looking at them expectantly—although Tzuyu simply sits there, dumbfounded at the singer. Studying Jihyo’s features from a distance she doesn’t even notice Chaeyoung pointing towards her, volunteering her to sing on stage. It’s only when Jihyo looks directly at her when she realizes that it’s too late and that everybody else is also looking at her.

“You,” she hears Jihyo say, pointing to her—and Tzuyu feels her soul leaving her body. It comes back when Chaeyoung nudges her again from behind.

“Come on,” Chaeyoung whispers. “You know you want to.”

So Tzuyu takes a deep breath and walks toward the stage. She tells Jihyo that she’s not exactly sure what to sing, so Jihyo offers her tablet which contains a list of their band’s default songs.

“I think Daring Women is a good song,” Jihyo suggests. “Do you know it?”

Tzuyu nods. “Umm, but, uh… Can you sing the first line? I kinda forgot how the song starts.”

“Oh, sure! We can make it a duet.”

(At the audience Chaeyoung’s already bragging to the rest of the girls about how her plan’s already working.)

The girls give Jihyo and Tzuyu a standing ovation, and when Tzuyu comes back to the table she smacks Chaeyoung on the shoulder who overreacts, insisting that she should be thanking her. The night ends when the band finishes their final song and thanks the girls for staying for their last set. The girls pick up their things to get ready to leave, but not before Chaeyoung tries convincing Tzuyu to talk to Jihyo.

“Just get her number!” Chaeyoung tells Tzuyu.

“No!”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t know where she lives? I mean what if she’s far away and—”

“Tzuyu, come on, you live three blocks away from here. Plus I’m sure their band is a regular in this place, so she must live nearby, too.”

“Wow, congrats for figuring that out, Sherlock. Look, I already sang with her when you volunteered me, even if I didn’t plan to. Don’t make me ask her out, too.”

“But I can sense the chemistry between you two!”

Tzuyu simply rolls her eyes at Chaeyoung and starts walking away. If she’s being honest, she does want to get Jihyo’s number, but after singing a duet with her and realizing that Jihyo is a singing goddess, she got weak and thought that Jihyo might’ve judged her singing voice. And yeah, it was Chaeyoung’s fault so Tzuyu doesn’t want to follow anything that the small girl says right now.

So Tzuyu doesn’t ask for Jihyo’s number. She simply follows the girls along as they make their way to the exit, when a familiar voice calls her and it booms through the area.

“Hey, Tzuyu!”

“Oh. Jihyo.” Tzuyu tries to act nonchalant and keep her cool even if she knows her friends (especially Chaeyoung) are equally anxious about this moment. “Hi.”

Tzuyu holds her breath. Is Jihyo gonna ask her out? In front of her friends? How is she gonna react? What is she gonna answer? Does she take out her phone or will Jihyo give her her phone and make her type in it? How long is she supposed to wait before one of them calls the oth—

“You left your hanky on the table.”

“Oh.” Oh. “T-Thank you.”

Feeling embarrassed Tzuyu mutters a quick goodbye to Jihyo and hurriedly walks out of the restaurant. The other girls follow her, not really talking because it might anger Tzuyu. In her haste Tzuyu drops something, and Momo picks it up.

“Hey, Tzuyu, you forgot your… hanky?”

Tzuyu turns around, very much confused. She walks closer to Momo and sees that it is indeed one of her handkerchiefs—her mother bought it for her when she was on a business trip in Guam.

“But if that’s mine then…” She holds up the hanky that Jihyo gave her and a piece of paper slips out. Momo picks it up for Tzuyu to read.

It was great singing with you and I hope we could do it again.

Call me sometime. Here’s my number.

Jihyo.