Chaewon is dumbfound. At first she thinks she's still dreaming, because there is no way in hell she would ever do something like this.

“Nice sticker.” Hyeju snickers behind her.

Chaewon’s blood begins to boil at the sight of the younger girl. She probably had something to do with this. Chaewon doesn’t exactly know how, but she knows Hyeju is involved.

“Shut up.” She sneers.

Hyeju smirks at her, but does as she’s told nonetheless, pushing off the wall she’d been leaning on to exit their shared bedroom. Chaewon is furious to say the least. She’d just recently been given a new cellphone and the sudden vandalizm is not appreciated. She lays it down flat on her desk. She’s going to have to use the utmost care and precision in removing the distasteful obstruction. She carefully maneuvers her fingernail under one edge, attempting to pry it off without leaving behind any sticky residue. She stops abruptly when she peels it off and realizes this is not going to work. The adhesive is just too much. If Chaewon wants it gone, she going to have to throw away her phone case. Dammit. She really liked this case.

“That’s cute.”

Chaewon jumps at the voice, scrambling to cover the repugnant object.

“No it’s not.” She whines.

“Oh? Then why’d you put it on there?” Yerim asks.

Chaewon opens to respond but Hyeju cuts in before she has the chance to.

“Because she has the hots for Jungeun.”

Chaewon’s jaw falls open.

“She does?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Why do you think she went blonde?”

“I do not!” Chaewon shouts. “I didn’t go blonde for her. It was part of my concept!”

“It’s okay, Chaewon. There’s no judgment here.” Hyeju grins.

If only murder was legal.

“I thought Jungeun was with Jinsoul though?” Yerim furrows her brows, not making the connection.

“She is.” Jinsoul says absentmindedly as she walks by the bedroom.

“Looks like you’ve got some competition.” Hyeju snickers at the passing blonde.

Jinsoul reappears in the doorway, quirking a brow at the young trio. Laughter erupts from the older girl.

“With you three? As if.”

Chaewon appreciates the group burn if only for the fact that it causes Hyeju’s smirk to turn into a scowl.

“Cocky .” Hyeju mutters under her breath. “Come now Yerim, we should leave Chaewon to her pining.”

Hyeju grabs Yerim’s hand, dragging the shorter girl out of the room. Chaewon finally explodes.

“JUNGEUN!”

“What? What? What’s the matter?” Jungeun splutters, nearly falling on her face as she races into the room, afraid something terrible has happened to Chaewon. It has.

“Why would you do this?!” Chaewon cries.

“Uh, do what?”

Chaewon lifts her phone, the tiny round circle sticker with Jungeun’s smiling face sticking out like a sore thumb on the back of Chaewon’s clear phone case.

“Oh.” Jungeun chuckles. “I thought you’d like it. Who doesn’t want a picture of me?”

“Me.” Sooyoung states dryly from the other side of the room.

She’d been watching in silence as Chaewon went through her existential crisis over the minuscule blemish on her otherwise immaculate phone case. Chaewon has always been somewhat of a perfectionist, so when she saw Jungeun creep into their shared room to place the sticker, the older girl knew Chaewon would lose her when she saw it. That didn’t make her stop Jungeun from doing it though.

“Well no one asked you.” Jungeun scoffs, sticking her tongue out childishly.

Sooyoung rolls her eyes, “Save it for Jinsoul, sweetheart.”

Chaewon has never Jungeun’s mouth close so quickly. Jungeun awkwardly clears .

“Anyways... You don’t want a picture of your favorite member?” She wiggles her brows suggestively.

“Excuse me?” Jiwoo interjects.

Chaewon groans at the sight of Jiwoo getting her feathers ruffled. The two 99 liners were obnoxious enough when they weren’t bickering. Jiwoo clambers out of Sooyoung’s bed where she’d been sleeping peacefully just moments before.

“I am her favorite member.” Jiwoo challenges.

Chaewon watches the smile spread across Jungeun’s lips and hears Sooyoung sighing.

Without looking up from her book the oldest scolds Jungeun, “Don’t do it.”

Jungeun, being Jungeun, ignores her completely.

“Yeah right.” She laughs.

Jiwoo shoves Jungeun and chaos ensues. It’s like watching two children having tantrums over not getting what they want.

“Knock it off!” Haseul shouts.

They stop fighting immediately.

“Kill joy.” Sooyoung murmurs.

Haseul shoots Sooyoung a glare but the other girl merely continues to read, never looking up from her novel, but always watching.

“Now then, Chaewon doesn’t play favorites, right Chaewon?”

Chaewon nods.

“She loves everyone, don’t you Chaewon?”

Another nod.

“Good.”

“Not good. That is a blatant lie and you always nag us about how lying is bad, don’t you Haseul.”

“Must you, Hyunjin?”

The taller girl grins, “I must.”

“Then who’s her favorite?” Jiwoo asks, oblivious to Chaewon’s rapidly increasing distress.

“It’s clearly - mphm”

“It’s no one.” Heejin states, hand clamped tightly over Hyunjin’s mouth as she drags her out of the room.

Heejin truly is the only Chaewon can trust in this house.

“Right then.” Haseul nods. “Come on you two. I have something else you can use your copious amounts of energy for.”

Haseul spins on her heels, strolling out of the room. Jiwoo reluctantly follows after her until Jungeun rushes by her, knocking into the smaller girl and insighting a new fight.

“You know it’s okay to like her, right?”

Chaewon glances back over at Sooyoung. The older girl has put her book down and is now standing, towering over Chaewon.

“For the last time, I do not like Jungeun.”

“Oh god no, not her. If you liked her we’d be going to see a neurologist to make sure you still have a brain.”

“Hey!” Jungeun pouts from the doorway.

Sooyoung slams the bedroom door in her face.

“Irritating little .” She mumbles. “I meant Yerim.”

Chaewon flushes. “I don’t... I mean... How did you... Is it really that obvious?”

“Oh honey.” Sooyoung coos. “Yes. Well, probably not to Yerim. She’s sweet, but she’s not the brightest bulb on the tree if you catch my drift.”

Chaewon sighs. “It doesn’t matter now anyways. Hyeju told her I like Jungeun.”

“First of all, Hyeju is the devil and you can’t listen to anything she says. Second, if you like Yerim that’s all that matters. You can tell her when you’re ready. Don’t let Hyeju get inside your head. That’s how she wins.”

Chaewon nods. The older girl reopens the door, taking a quick look to make sure Jungeun is nowhere in sight before she leaves the safety of her bedroom.

“Sooyoung?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks.”

Sooyoung flashes her a bright smile. “Any time, kid.”

-

Sooyoung gets halfway to the living room when a quiet voice calls for her.

“Sooyoung?”

She quirks a brow, entering OEC’s shared room only to find Yerim wrapped up in a mess of what appears to be masking tape.

“Uh...”

“Help, please.” Yerim begs.

Sooyoung begins to untangle her carefully, making sure to be gentle when she pulls the pieces off of Yerim’s bare skin. Once she successfully detaches Yerim from the confines of the clear tape she stares at the younger girl expectantly, waiting for whatever explaination she has. It ought to be good.

Yerim sighs, cheeks turning the slightest of pink. She holds out a tiny, poorly cut picture of herself which only insights more confusion.

“I was trying to make Chaewon a sticker.”

Sooyoung feels her heart swell. This is the cutest ing she’s ever seen.

“Why?” Sooyoung questions.

She knows the answer but she wants Yerim to say it.

“Because she likes stickers?”

“Try again.”

“Because I don’t like that she has one of Jungeun.”

“There ya go.”

Yerim’s head snaps in the older girls direction.

“Can you help me make it, please.”

Sooyoung smiles, “Of course.”

-

Chaewon reluctantly admits defeat. Jungeun’s sticker is made of the most powerful adhesive in the world and Chaewon is just going to have to accept the fact that she needs to throw away her phone case and purchase a new one. Leaving her desk with a sigh, Chaewon gets ready to exit her room for the first time all morning. A part of her wants to stay within the safety of the four walls and just go back to bed and pretend Jungeun didn’t taint her own personal Eden by breaking into her bedroom. Most of her is hungry. She flings open the door only to be greeted by an exceptionally flustered Yerim, who apparently was just about to knock.

“Chaewon!” She squeaks. “Hi.”

“Hi?”

Chaewon’s eyes are immediately drawn to Yerim’s bandaid covered fingers. They definitely weren’t like that when she saw her earlier. Yerim quickly hides them from Chaewon’s view.

“I... uh... have something for you.” Yerim stutters.

“Oh?”

Yerim hands her a tiny, laminated photo and Chaewon is more than confused.

“I just figured... you know... since you have a sticker of Jungeun... you might want one of me too...”

Chaewon finally connects the dots. Yerim was battered and bruised because she spent the morning making Chaewon her own personal Choi Yerim sticker for her phone. Chaewon can’t stop the grin from spreading across her lips.

“Of course I do.”

Yerim’s head snaps up.

“You do?”

“Yes. Thank you Yerim.” Chaewon leans forward, pressing her lips against the younger girls cheek. “I love it, and I know just where to put it.”

-

Yerim stands frozen in the middle of the hallway. Chaewon walked by her nearly ten minutes ago but she couldn’t seem to get herself to move. Her cheeks burned, whether from her own blush or from where Chaewon’s lips had met her skin, she couldn’t really tell. Nor did she really care at the moment.

“Uh, you good?” Yeojin asks.

Yerim wants to respond but physically cannot do so.

“Yerim?”

“Hello?”

“Guys! I think she’s broken!”

“She’s not broken Yeojin. She’s in love.” Kahei says pointedly, shooing the youngest away. “Take your time.”

Yerim isn’t sure she’ll ever be able to move.

-

“Why did you cover my sticker with Yerim’s?!” Jungeun shrieks.

“Because she’s my favorite member.”

A/N: I survived year one of law school y'all!