Rina and Lucy were down in the laundry room, changing clothes over from the washer to the dryer.

"Lucy, can I ask you a question?" Rina asked timidly.

"Sure," Lucy said, looking up from the clothes she was transferring.  "What's up?"

Rina leaned back against the dryer, looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.  Letting out slowly, she quietly asked "If Elly and I wanted to join the OT6 - and I'm not saying we do! - but if we did, what would have to happen?"

Lucy threw the last clothes into the dryer and shut the door.  As she set the timer and turned it on, she said "Well, once you and Elly had reached an agreement on this, then the OT6 would have to have a meeting about it - maybe several meetings, because the unnies like to keep discussions to smaller groups - and then once we said yes - because I'm pretty sure we'd say yes - we'd call you and Elly in and tell you our decision and then give you lots and lots of kisses."

Rina sighed.  "You make it sound so easy!"

Lucy laughed.  "That's because you've never been to one of our OT6 meetings - sometimes it's next to impossible to get us all to agree on something."  She paused for a second.  "But what's with all the questions?  I thought you and Elly were happy with keeping things simple as a couple."

Rina nodded.  "We are.  It's just - and don't tell anyone - I've been thinking about OT8, and I think Elly has too, but I don't think either one of us really wants to do it, we're just afraid to tell the other one now, because how could one of us possibly compete with the other six of you?"

"Rina, that's not good," Lucy sais, shaking her head.  "I'm not exactly an expert, but after the last year I feel like I know something, and it's not good to try to join a poly group when you're already having relationship problems."

Rina looked dismayed.  "So what do I         

"You've got to talk with Elly," Lucy said, nodding decisively.  "You've got to be able to communicate about this.  And don't take this the wrong way, but until I knew for certain that you and Elly have talked about this, I'd vote against you joining the OT6, if you were interested, which you're not."

"Right, we're not."  Rina said.

"Totally not," Lucy added.  

Finally the two maknaes weren't able to keep a straight face anymore, and they both burst out laughing.

"What's wrong?" Suyeon asked.  "You look worried about something."

Lucy looked up from where she was painting Suyeon's fingernails.  "Oh, it's just. . ." - she looked around to be sure the door to Suyeon's room was closed - "something Rina said this morning has me worried."

"Oh?"  Until she knew what Rina had said, Suyeon didn't know how worried she should be.

Lucy finished painting the final nail, then closed the polish.  "Yeah, it's like this:  She asked about what would have to happen if she and Elly wanted to join an OT8 with us."

"I'd think you'd be happy about that!" Suyeon said.  "It's what you wanted from the beginning!"

Lucy shook her head.  "Not like this.  From what Rina said, she and Elly are having problems, and rather than talk it out and fix things, she wants to join OT8, like she thinks the problems will magically fix themselves."

"Oh no, that's not gonna work," Suyeon said.  "Maybe we've hidden too many of our problems from Rina and so now she things things are easy for us."

Lucy shook her head.  "So what do we do now?"

Suyeon thought for a moment, then shrugged.  "There's nothing we really can do right now.  If she or Elly talk to us about it, we can talk about it as a group then and make our decision.  Until then it's all just ideas and hypotheticals."  Suyeon reached out and caressed the side of Lucy's face.  "It's gonna be okay.  No need for you to worry about it."

Lucy started putting away her nail polishes.  "Yeah. . . besides, we've already got plenty to worry about with going for dinner with Sei's parents tonight."

Suyeon's eyes got huge.  "That's today?"  She checked the time on her phone.  "If we all scramble and get dressed right now, we'll have just enough time to make it to the station!  Can you get the others moving on your way to your room?"

Lucy nodded.  "Got it!  I was thinking out wearing my blue and white sailor dress.  Would that be good?"

"That should be great," Suyeon said, not looking away from where she was ransacking her closet.  As she tried to decide between the two dresses that had caught her eye, she heard Lucy calling out "Yoojung!  Doyeon!  We've got to get ready for dinner with Sei's parents.  Sei!  Lua!  Come on!  We can't miss our train!"

As it happened, they got to the train station and bought their tickets just as the conductor was calling out "Final boading for the 2:50  train to Ansan.  Final boarding."  They scrambled to get on the train, then by some miracle managed to find six seats together.

"Do you think I look okay?" Lucy asked, as she smoothed out some imaginary wrinkles on her dress.

Sei reached out and took her hand.  "We all told you already.  You look beautiful!  What are you so worried about?"

Lucy forced herself to sit still, then intertwined her fingers with Sei's.  "I'm just nervous because I've never met your mom before.  What if she doesn't like me?  What if she thinks I'm too young for you?  What if she thinks I'm not good enough for you?"

Sei leaned over and rested her head and Lucy's shoulder.  "You're worrying about nothing.  She's going to love you!"

Lucy leaned her head against Sei's.  "You're just saying that because you love me."

Lua leaned forward so she could talk with them.  "No, really, she's going to love you.  When she called to talk to Sei yesterday, she made me promise to be sure you came along today.  'I want all of you this time!'"

Sei laughed at Lua's impression of her mother.  Just then her phone beeped.  Pulling it out of her purse, she checked her messages.  "It's my brother!  He wants to be sure we're still coming over for dinner tonight."

Lucy looked even more panicked - which Suyeon didn't think was possible.  "Your brother's going to be there too?"

Sei's phone beeped again.  "Yep, he's going to be there," she said as she read the message.  "And he's bringing his girlfriend!"

Yoojung was practically quivering with excitement.  "Is this the wedding announcement we've been waiting for?"

Sei nodded.  "I think so."

Doyeon leaned forward to get in on the conversation