It had been a long day on the stage for Sana. Now that it was over, it was all catching up to her, her clothes weighed down with the heaviness of exhaustion, everything feeling like a little too much. She stares at her reflection from the mirror in her room, the smudges of her makeup only emphasizing how much of a mess she feels like. Despite that, she smiles, a sense of satisfaction over the day’s events making everything more bearable. Still, she wonders how much longer she—or any of them—can handle this.

The special stages had been incredible to perform in, and Sana appreciated the change of pace. She had been excited most of all to perform a dance from another group's song, showing off how well she does in more complex choreography, but it had manages to exhaust her further. She can’t imagine having to dance so much in every performance—it would wear her out even faster.

Perhaps the only thing that bothered her about today was the choker their manager had decided she should wear. Because of how much Sana had to move for the dance, the choker was a little tighter to avoid shifting out of place. Sana feels the lace on her neck, liking the way it looks on her reflection but hating how itchy it is on her skin.

“Today was fun,” Dahyun says randomly, watching Sana look at herself in the mirror. She had been using her phone before Sana’s simple presence had distracted her away from it. “You did really good on stage.”

Sana smiles. “Twice did really well.”

“You seem tired,” Dahyun points out, getting up and walking towards her. Dahyun was already in her pajamas and ready to go to sleep, but she wanted to wait up for Sana so they could fall asleep next to each other. It was starting to become a habit, and not one Dahyun was willing to break for even a moment.

Sana’s thumb twists the edge of her choker to snap the clasp off, but it stays in place. She turns towards Dahyun, still trying to pinch the choker off of her neck. “Can you help me with this?”

Dahyun’s eyes land on the choker, but she hesitates to move. The pretty black lace seems to only accentuate how pretty Sana’s skin is, something so perfect in its simplicity. Her eyes move downwards, trailing the edges of Sana’s top, which is cute if not a little short, revealing the curve of her-

“Nope! Not today!” Dahyun says as she hides her eyes away, walking clumsily back to her bed.

“Dahyun-ah, why won’t you help me?” Sana pouts as she speaks.

“It’s dangerous!” Dahyun says before falling backwards onto her bed, surprised at her own ability to make it back safely.

Sana sighs, though a bit amused at how weird Dahyun is acting over nothing. “Can you at least help me take off my makeup?”

Dahyun looks at her cautiously, finally calming down.

Sana smiles and gives her the little box of makeup-remover wipes, sitting down next to Dahyun on her bed. “Take off the eyeshadow first, it’s been bothering me since we got back home.”

The eyeshadow didn’t look anything less than ethereal, the shades of pink on one corner blending into purple on the other, making Sana's eyes look like that of a fairy. Dahyun tries her best to rub it off, the colors smoothening away, but being so close to Sana only made her heart beat louder against her chest, and Dahyun could swear that any louder and Sana could probably hear it. Once she was finished removing Sana’s eyeshadow, her eyes trailed downwards to the pretty curve of Sana’s lips, their rosy color seeming to sparkle.

“Dubu? You okay?” Sana asks, interrupting Dahyun’s thoughts, but the movement of her lips seem to only enchant the younger girl further.

“Oh, um, yeah,” Dahyun says before taking out another wipe, discarding the previous one.

“You can kiss me, you know,” Sana says before Dahyun can finish removing all her makeup.

Dahyun’s cheeks flare up with heat, her attention falling back to Sana’s lips and how little the distance between hers are from Dahyun’s. “Will it mean anything?” Dahyun asks distractedly, not really thinking about what she’s saying but only saying something to fill up the silence.

“I hope it does,” Sana smiles before leaning a little forward. She doesn’t kiss Dahyun quite yet, but her breath tickles the edges of Dahyun’s lips. “All the other ones did.”

Dahyun tries to move her gaze away, accidentally looking at the choker on Sana’s neck again. Before she can stop herself, Dahyun raises her hand up to it, a finger curving underneath the lace of the choker and pulling Sana back to her. Dahyun’s kiss is hungry, biting down softly on Sana’s bottom lip, her hand on Sana’s choker tightening a bit more though not enough to actually hurt her.

Sana smiles into the kiss, her hand at Dahyun’s jaw and moving away Dahyun’s hair from her face.

“You like the choker, huh?” Sana says after they break apart for air.

Dahyun looks away, suddenly shy, the sleep in her system having lowered her willpower. “Yeah… A bit…”

“Maybe I should wear it more often,” Sana teases, leaning her body onto Dahyun’s, pushing the younger girl onto her back. She sits on Dahyun’s lap, her legs on either side of her, trapping Dahyun underneath. “Or we switch sometimes,” she says as her hands trails up Dahyun’s top, feeling the smooth skin of her tummy, giggling as she kisses her again.

The sensation is euphoric. When Sana pulls away again, she knows that they’re both two messes entangled in each other, and she can’t help but look at Dahyun with so much affection in her heart.

Dahyun’s eyes are wide as she stares up at the girl she’s in love with, all her emotions caught up in and coming out as for three simple words. “I love you,” she whispers, a little out of breath, and it’s scary how real it is.

~

“IF YOU DON’T GET UP IN THE VERY NEXT MINUTE, I’LL TELL JIHYO THAT YOU HAD !” the sound of Momo yelling at them seems to echo on the walls, waking them up with a start.

The words suddenly catch up to Dahyun and she quickly checks to make sure there’s no truth to them. Sana’s waking up next to her on Dahyun’s bed—bad sign, bad sign—yawning cutely as she sits up. She’s wearing one of Dahyun’s pajamas, but at least she’s wearing something.

Dahyun looks down on herself and sees that she’s still wearing the same pajamas she was wearing yesterday night, which is a good sign. She sighs in relief, having been worried for no reason.

Sana gets up, knocking twice on the door to catch their members attention from outside. “Don’t worry, I don’t do that on the first date,” she says boredly, going towards her closet to pick out decent clothes to change out of Dahyun’s jamies from. Before she can make a decision on what to wear, though:

“Is it safe to come in...?” Jihyo says carefully, opening the door a tiny bit.

Sana just opens the door, still too sleepy and tired to deal with this. Jihyo falls inside, having been leaning on the door cautiously before, and Mina falls alongside her with Jeongyeon and Nayeon soon falling too. Jeongyeon groans, Nayeon having fallen on top of her, while Jihyo just awkwardly gets up again after Mina fell onto her. Momo hovers by the door, giggling to herself since she was the only one who hadn’t fallen.

“You guys really don’t trust me,” Sana pouts, going back to her closet to pick out an outfit. “Anyway, what are we doing today?”

“It’s ten o’clock,” Momo replies, tilting her head to the side.

Sana turns to her, maybe having only understood half of what she said. “What happens at ten o’clock?”

“Sana… It is ten,” she explains, raising an eyebrow at her confusion. Then she laughs a little, enjoying this. “Damn, you’re really out of it.”

Dahyun turns on her phone to check the time and, sure enough, it’s three hours past the time they usually have to get up. And that’s a bad sign. “,” she curses under her breath.

“Dubu, were you drunk last night?” Sana asks, her tone of voice showing that she’s annoyed.

“Ah, no?” Dahyun answers, and that realization takes away all her worries again.

Sana lightly hits her knuckles against Dahyun’s temple. “Then don’t worry. Aish, we just kissed, that’s all.”

“That’s all?” Dahyun asks to make sure.

“That’s all, baby,” Sana smiles at her, kissing her cheek softly. “I love you, so I’m not gonna try to do anything you’re not ready to do.”

Someone gasps. Sana turns back to their members, annoyed at how they still haven’t walked out of her room.

"She said it! She said the L-word!!" And it’s Nayeon that speaks up, still sitting on the floor on Jeongyeon’s lap. “You’ve grown so much!” she says, tearing up and hugging Jeongyeon through the happy tears, making Jeongyeon groan because of the strength of her hug. “My little baby has grown up so much, Jeongyeon! Our little baby!”

Sana just sighs. “I can act like an adult sometimes, Nayeon-ah, it’s not that serious. And I’m the same age as Jeongyeon.”

While this goes on, Dahyun grabs onto Sana’s hand, clinging a bit to her. She intertwines their fingers together, liking the way it feels and smiling to herself.

“I ended up canceling today’s schedule,” Jihyo finally admits, her voice a little low. “I thought you two would need a day to recover from last night…”

Sana sits on the bed, putting her clothes over the desk before laying back down and putting the sheets and blankets back over her head. Dahyun looks at her curiously before Sana just grabs her and pulls her back down next to her, hiding the younger girl under the sheets with her.

“Then I’m going back to sleep if we’re not doing anything today,” Sana announces, laying her head on Dahyun’s chest and cuddling into her side.

“Jihyo-unnie, why did you think we were…?” Dahyun trails off, not wanting to complete her question and hoping that Jihyo understands.

Jihyo’s eyes go wide and she turns back to the other girls, counting each of them. Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Mina, Momo, herself, and Sana and Dahyun. That’s seven people. It suddenly hits her who are the ones missing, and who had been so, um, loud last night that it was undeniable that someone was getting laid. Jihyo shuts her eyes tightly. “Oh no…”

Mina realizes a second later what Jihyo has just found out, nodding to herself through the shock. She puts a sympathetic hand on Jihyo’s shoulder. “I think it’s time to go,” she says while pushing the other members away, letting Saida be alone again.

~

Dahyun has a hard time getting comfortable again. Still, it feels nice to be here with Sana in her arms, the slow drawl of Sana’s soft breaths as the older girl falls asleep on top of her being a lullaby.

“I love you,” she says for the second time, pressing a kiss against Sana’s temple before closing her eyes to try and sleep some more.

i'm BACK :D

since it's been so long, i wanted to point something out: dahyun saying 'i love you' parallels sana's and, yes, this is the first (and second!) time dahyun says it to her.