Chaewon realizes it one night when she's watching the recording of their most recent live.

Holy . Chaekura is freaking canon.

She pauses at the credits and rewinds. Skips the opening to rewatch the group's introductions. She observes the MC sections. She scours each dance.

By the time the encore comes around, the evidence is undeniable.

Chaeyeon and Sakura are hardcore gay for each other.

.

.

.

It isn't as though she's just finding it out, Chaewon tells herself. They go out on freaking parfait dates, for god's sake. Their not-so-secret relationship is basically a running joke in Izone.

That Miyawaki Chaeyeon moment will never die.

But still.

She hadn't counted on just how real it is.

.

.

.

At the end of their debut showcase, as the group is exiting the stage and waving goodbye to their cheering fans, Chaeyeon makes a big deal of holding her hand out to help Sakura. Chaeyeon accepts graciously and the two intertwine their fingers as they leave.

The crowd goes wild.

Chaewon represses a gag.

"What's that face for." Yujin arches an eyebrow, more a statement than a question.

Chaewon turns away gravely. "The cold, hard truth," she answers.

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.

.

The release of La Vie En Rose (chemi version) doesn't help.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Chaewon demands one day after school when she's cornered the bewildered Yena. "Are you kidding me?"

Yena shrugs, looking only marginally cowed and mostly irritated. "Chaeyeon and Sakura thought it was fine," she points out.

Chaewon is disgusted. "Of course they did."

"Is there a problem?" Yena sounds reluctant to ask. "If you'll recall," she continues, "it was you who mentioned that… well… boosting the yuri vibes… would be a good idea."

"Of course it's a good idea!" she snaps. "I came up with it!"

"Okay then." Sakura is miffed but Chaewon ignores it.

There are more important things to worry about.

Like what the heck she's supposed to do about this growing case of lesbians.

.

.

.

During a promotional televised event, Izone is divided into their school year groups, and each trio is meant to perform as a team in simple games.

"Everyone, please cheer us on with an extra powerful Chaewon-Chaewon-nii!" Chaewon delivers her catchphrase to the camera enthusiastically.

On the right side of her, Yena folds her arms against her chest and presses a finger to her cheek, winking at the camera. ". I'll do my best."

Sakura on her left, declares, "The unnie team definitely has the most power! It must be because we are cool and cute, don't you all think?"

Team A Eunbi- Sakura- Hyewon

Team B – Yena- Chaeyeon-Chaewon

Team C- Yuri-Nako-Hitomi

Team D- Wonyoung- Minju- Yujin

"Hey, Sakura…" Hyewon gives her a well-practiced partially embarrassed, partially exasperated, predominantly fond look.

Chaewon can't remember if that's part of their script or not. Before she can help it, she yelps out, "What about me?"

"And, of course, our adorable mascot," Chaeyeon teases, either genuinely following what they're supposed to do or proving herself an excellent improvisor.

In any case, Chaewon catches herself and makes an overdramatic pout that isn't too far off from what she actually wants to do and with that settled, the event goes on.

Chaewon thinks she's truly surpassed all standards of acting when she watches the show later on and notices that she managed to suppress every single sour expression she'd wanted to make.

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.

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It's not like it's a bad thing that Chaeyeon and Sakura are together. That is, together together.

Chaewon figures she should be happy about it. Huzzah, her only friends in her class are going out and are madly in love and only have eyes for each other and are gonna elope to Russia and have like one-eighth Russian babies that are perfect and blonde and probably gay. She wonders when she should send her congratulatory gift.

.

.

Chaewon can't tell if she's imagining it, but their debut showcase suddenly seem to involve a lot more Chaekura interaction than they used in Produce 48.

"Alone as always, aren't you?" Sakura teases lightly.

"Sakura." Chaeyeon’s voice is soft when she addresses the other