“Yeri?! What the are you doing here?!” Chanyeol said, shocked that his sister was right in front of his very eyes.

“Well that’s one way of greeting your beloved sister,” Yeri rolled her eyes then welcomed herself into Chanyeol’s apartment, raking through his refrigerator. “You only have kimchi? This fridge is just sad.”

“Can you stop for one second and please explain why you’re here,” Chanyeol said. “Also, nice to see you?”

“Oh, brother,” Yeri laughed. She approached Chanyeol and hugged him. “I missed you. Palace is even more miserable without you.”

“I missed you too, Yeri,” Chanyeol laughed. He then suddenly heard stirring upstairs. . Wendy! His eyes suddenly went wide, panicking.

“What’s that?” Yeri asked. Chanyeol gulped. Yeri knew about Wendy, but this was the worst way they could possibly meet. Knowing Yeri – she would have those assumptions. He hasn’t even told Yeri that he and Wendy were together now. She might get the wrong impression about Wendy, and that was the last thing Chanyeol wanted. He knew that Wendy was already going downstairs from the sound of her footsteps. He had to tell Yeri, stat.

“Uhhh the girl I was telling you about she’s my girlfriend now,” he whispered, stumbling over his words quickly.

“Whut?” Yeri chuckled, finding the way her brother semi-rapped ridiculous.

“Oh, uhm, hi?” Wendy suddenly came up beside Chanyeol, smiling unsurely at Yeri’s unfamiliar face.

“Well? Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Yeri smiled mischievously at her brother. Wendy felt nerves in her system.

“Yeri, this is Wendy, my girlfriend. Wendy, this is Yeri, she’s… my sister,” Chanyeol said.

Wendy’s eyes widened, unsure how to greet Yeri. Was she supposed to say hi? She’s her boyfriend’s sister, after all. Or should she ing curtsey? She’s the princess of South Korea!

“Chanyeol told me all about you,” Yeri smiled, lifting Wendy’s burden off her. “Except the girlfriend part. I gather he’s been busy.”

Wendy elbowed Chanyeol’s stomach, slightly annoyed that he was too busy to tell his sister that they were dating.

“The ,” Chanyeol glared at his girlfriend. Wendy just glared back. Yeri hid her laugh, finding the two adorable.

“Nice to meet you,” Wendy said, smiling and offering her hand. Yeri waved her off and went straight for a hug.

“If what Chanyeol said is true, then I like you already and there’s no need to be formal with me,” Yeri said. Yeri was still unsure whether Wendy knew Chanyeol was a prince, so she erred on the side of caution.

“Oh, I haven’t mentioned it to you yet – she knows,” Chanyeol said.

“What? What do I know?” Wendy asked.

“That he’s the royal, handsome Prince of Winterfell, et cetera,” Yeri teased. “We just have that sibling connection, sorry for our code-y language.”

“Oh it’s no problem!” Wendy insisted. “Anyway, I should go – I’m sure you guys have a lot of catching up to do—”

“Do you have errands? On a weekend?” Yeri asked Wendy . “I’m only here for a day –”

“You still haven’t told us why you’re here, not that I’m complaining,” Chanyeol said.

“Just as I was saying, I’m only here for a day. My flight leaves this evening for Chicago, I’m meeting up with some friends. Decided to stop by.”

“How’d you know where I stay at in LA?! I didn’t even tell you,” Chanyeol sighed.

“I had Taeyong look for Minseok’s place in LA, easy peasy,” Yeri smiled, proud of herself. So Taeyong was the one snooping, Chanyeol thought to himself, remembering that Jongin felt queasy about someone stalking them.

“Taeyong’s her guard who’s madly in love with her, and Minseok’s the guy who gave me this place,” Chanyeol explained to Wendy.

“Taeyong is not in love with me,” Yeri suddenly exclaimed. “But I trust him with my life. Everything’s safe with him.”

“Sure, keep telling yourself that,” Chanyeol grinned. “Anyway, where’d you wanna eat?”

“We can’t be seen together outside, ,” Yeri rolled her eyes. “We’ll definitely be recognized if we go out together.” That shut Chanyeol up. “I can’t believe you graduated from LSE.”

“Hey, that’s a low blow—”

“I can cook,” Wendy suggested. “I’ll make do with whatever Chanyeol has.”

“Babe, you don’t have to,” Chanyeol whispered to his girlfriend. “We can have UberEats or something.”

“Please, I insist,” Wendy said.

“Only if you let me help out,” Chanyeol grinned, and Wendy smiled back at him, nodding her head.

“Oh my god,” Yeri said, stunned. “My brother cooks now?!”

“She taught me,” Chanyeol shrugged.

An hour later, Wendy and Chanyeol laid down the plates and bowls filled with noodles and kimchi rice (they had to make do with Chanyeol’s almost empty cupboards).

“This smells so good,” Yeri said, taking a whiff of her plate before taking a spoonful of kimchi rice. “Oh god, tastes good too. Better than our chefs at the palace!”

“I told you it’s better than palace kimchi rice,” Chanyeol said to Wendy. Wendy just hit his shoulder. “Of course that’s what I get for complimenting your cooking.”

“It’s yours, too!” Wendy said.

The three bonded over trivial things: their favorite shows (Wendy and Chanyeol watched all the Netflix shows); music (Chanyeol proudly shared to Yeri about Wendy’s previous songwriting and plans for writing in the future); and their hatred for Republicans (Yeri and Chanyeol bemoaned that the Korean royalty had to keep their ‘grace’ in front of those “useless asshats,” as Yeri put it; Wendy just complained because, well. The GOP was scum.) Yeri found herself liking Wendy even more – and she noticed how Chanyeol changed. For the better. There was a lightness to him, and she could see how he looked at Wendy. This was real.

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