Elly's POV:

Being an idol is quite difficult.

You have to be extremely cautious about how you act and react to every single thing.

Because people like to make drama out of nothing.

So all idols know the formulaic response that one is supposed to give when an interviewer inevitably asks you about your ideal type.

Stay vague or be playful.

Because if you accidentally let too much information slip, it would spark up so many rumors.

I had memorized all of this stuff when I was still a trainee.

Yet here I was.

Recording for a television show.

Essentially admitting that I'm dating one of my bandmates.

It started off as a normal interview, the third one we had been to that day.

Fantagio was aggressively promoting our newest album, in hopes that we would get a better response to it than our debut album.

The interviewer was making the rounds, asking each of us generic questions that we had been asked millions of times.

Suyeon had just finished up responding to a question about her favorite dramas.

"On to the next one. Let's talk about love~," all of the girls ooh-ed dramatically at the host’s words, "Do any of you have a special someone?"

The room immediately filled with chaos as we all frantically denied dating anyone.

"No?" The interviewer quirked an eyebrow, "Why is that? You're all lovely young girls."

"Ah," Doyeon cut in, "Our company doesn't allow us to date until we get more popular."

I couldn't help but chuckle at her words.

Doyeon really wasn't the best one to be discussing our dating rules.

She had been in a quiet relationship with Yoojung since 2016.

"Well then," the man continued, "Who would you like to date when the ban ends? What are your ideal types?"

A few of my members answered before me.

Lua mentioned Park Bogum and his "sweet smile".

Sei said she'd like a man with soft eyes, like Seo Kangjoon.

Then came Rina.

My Rina.

When the interviewer posed the question to her, her cheeks flushed a soft pink.

"Um well, I'm still quite young. I don't really think too much about that stuff yet."

The whole room filled with laughter.

"So there is no one that you like right now? Not even a bit of a crush?"

Her eyes flitted to me for the briefest second, but she looked away quickly.

"Not particularly. I guess I would just like to date someone who is nice to me."

My heart swelled.

I treat Rina like a princess.

Because she deserves it.

If she wanted someone nice, she had definitely picked the right bandmate to date.

After her was Yoojung, who energetically spouted off a long list of characteristics that she would like her dream husband to have.

The only one of her "desired" attributes that matched Doyeon was tall.

Yoojung and Doyeon were pretty good at hiding their relationship.

To be fair, they had close to two years of practice.

I, on the other hand, was quite horrible at it.

Most of the time, I just avoided saying anything that could possibly lead me to say something that would expose us.

I mean, Rina and I even tried our best to keep it from our members.

To our knowledge, none of them knew about us yet.

"What about the eldest members?"

"I think we have different tastes from our younger members," Suyeon motioned between herself and me, "I would like an older, more responsible man."

The interviewer nodded understandingly.

"Ah. You are the leader, so it makes sense that you would want to date someone who is also responsible," he now turned to face me, "What about you then, Elly?"

"Well," I gave a TV-ready smile, "I generally like people younger than me."

Oh no.

What was I saying?

The man raised an eyebrow.

"So not like Suyeon?"

Basically ignoring his words, I continued on.

"And I think dark hair, gorgeous brown eyes, and adorable ears are nice, too."

My members hooted a bit at my words (especially Sei, who loves a man with nice eyes).

"And their personality would have to mesh well with mine. Maybe someone who is a bit quiet and shy, but doesn't mind listening to me go on about random things."

***

"Oh my God!"

Rina ran a gentle hand through my red locks, my head resting on her thighs.

"What's up?" She giggled, still playing with my hair.

I sat up on the couch, pointing excitedly at my phone.

"NCT is coming back soon!"

"Yeah?"

I tossed my phone down, losing it somewhere between the cushions.

"And rumor has it Doyoung is going to get more lines! And WinWin is going to get a dance break! I cannot wait to see this!"

Rina just watched me, smiling, as I continued babbling.

She couldn't care less about NCT, but she let me go on and on.

Because she knew it made me happy.

***

My smile shifted into a genuine one as Rina suddenly entered my mind,

At this point everyone had fallen silent.

Even the interviewer didn't try to stop my ramblings.

I think he was caught off guard by my answer being so much more detailed than the others.

"I'd also love someone with artistic abilities. That way they could always draw me, and show me exactly what they love about me, reminding me that every part of me is beautiful to them."

***

"Hold still. I'm almost done."

Rina bit her lip, her brows furrowed in concentration, as she scribbled in her drawing pad.

"There," she smiled and turned her journal to me, "What do you think?"

My heart fluttered.

"Wow," I gasped, "It's beautiful."

She stood from her spot at the desk in our dorm room and approached me on my bunk.

Setting the pad on my bed, she moved to caress my cheek.

"You're beautiful."

Her voice was soft.

My throat suddenly went dry.

She blushed, shaking her head before picking up her notebook again and sitting next to me.

We were dating, so I knew she liked me, but she still got embarrassed when she showed it.

"See," she pointed to her drawing, "I shaded more lightly here to help accentuate your eyes."

I smiled then leaned in, pressing a kiss to both corners of her lips.

When I pulled back, she wore her gentle smile.

"I love your eyes. They're so bright... I want to see them forever."

***

I glanced at Rina to see how she was reacting, then quickly looked down at my hands.

Her cheeks had flushed even more from my words.

I knew I needed to stop, but I couldn't bring myself to.

I was thinking about my wonderful girlfriend now, and the floodgates were open.

"Then there's the way they'd look at me. Pure adoration. As if they thought I was an angel," I paused to take a breath, "But in reality, they're the angel. I wouldn't deserve them, but they'd stick with me regardless because they love me. And I love them."

***

"Elly?"

We were laying in my bunk, Rina's arms around my waist from behind.

I hummed in response before attempting to roll over to face her.

Instead her grip on me tensed, keeping me in place.

"Wait, not now," she whispered.

So I relaxed into her hold again as she continued.

Her breathing had quickened and I could feel her body softly pulsing against mine.

"Sometimes I think about you and it makes my chest tight. And then I actually see you and that feeling somehow gets worse," she let her fingers gently trail from my hip to my shoulder, "You're like a piece of art. Stunningly beautiful, and all I want to do is look. You're mine to admire, Haerim."

My breath hitched, my entirety affected by her words.

I held her wrist, so that I could turn to face her without any opposition.

When our eyes met, I repeated back to her.

"You're mine to admire, Soeun."

***

"There would be times when they would come home, something from that day weighing down on them. They'd come find me, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, and tuck their head into my chest and hug me tightly as they whispered to me about their struggles."

***

I was in the kitchen making dinner for my members.

It was my day to pick meals, so I was preparing tteokbokki.

It's Rina's favorite.

My plan was to surprise her with it when the maknaes returned home from school.

Just as I was mixing the pepper paste with the rice cakes, I heard the door to the dorm open.

My stomach fluttered at the sound.

I was excited to see Rina.

I hurriedly began to plate the food, organizing everything very particularly.

I then picked up two of the plates, and turned to carry them to the table.

Before I could even begin walking, Rina caught me up in her arms, her face pressed warmly into my chest.

A startled chuckle escaped my lips.

"Rina, sweetheart. I didn't hear you come in."

I waited for her response, but it never came, causing my smile to fade.

Without Rina loosening her grip on me, I turned a bit to set the food down on the counter.

When I was done, I let my arms come to rest around her waist.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

It took a minute, but Rina eventually replied.

"It's just been a hard day... I woke up feeling sick, then I had a busy day at school, and I'm nervous for Inkigayo. Plus I missed you all day," she squeezed me tighter, "Please stay with me."

"Of course."

***

I clasped my hands together in my lap, the thought of Rina making my heart pound.

I shook my head, attempting to put myself back on track, so that we could finish the interview.

"So really, I'd just want someone who could love me despite all of my flaws."

I smiled once more into the camera, trying to play off my nonsensical speech about love.

I'm almost positive that most of my rant would be cut from airing anyway, but I still couldn't help the blush that formed on my cheeks.

I had said a lot.

I had said too much.

The interviewer cleared his throat.

"Well, there you have it," he forced a playful tone, trying to recover from the delay I had caused, "If you somehow manage to check all of those boxes, you might have a chance with Weki Meki's Elly."

The girls let out shaky laughs, unsure of how else to respond.

"How about we take a quick break and then reconvene in a few minutes?"

As the interviewer stood and walked backstage, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

For a moment we sat in silence, still a bit stunned from my actions.

Until Lucy marched up to me and smacked my arm.

It didn't hurt, but it startled me from my state of petrified shock.

"What are you going on about, unnie?!"

"I uh..."

What was I going on about?

Why had I suddenly gone off on a tangent about Rina, even though I knew better?

I'd done numerous interviews, answered the ideal type question numerous times, and never had I ever slipped up this badly.

I normally could manage to keep Rina out of my head long enough to form coherent responses for the duration of the interview.

But this time, I'd messed up.

Suyeon quickly ran over to us and intercepted before Lucy could slap me again.

She pressed her hand to Lucy’s arm, calming her down.

“Lucy, go sit. We’re a team, we have to be in this together. Don’t blame Elly for anything.”

I gave Suyeon an appreciative smile before the two of them reclaimed their seats.

When the host returned, we filmed the last bit of the interview.

The remaining portion went off without a hitch.

By the time we were done, it seemed as everyone had recovered from my blunder.

After saying thank you to the crew, we all began to file out of the studio and into our bus.

I threw myself into my seat, immediately resting my head in my hands.

I was disappointed in myself, and I knew Rina had to be as well.

“Hey,” Rina sat beside me and began raking her fingers comfortingly through my hair, “Are you okay?”

I moved to look up at her in an attempt to gauge her emotions.

To my surprise, she didn’t seem upset.

Instead, she was smiling affectionately at me.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. I just felt-"

Before I could finish my apology, Rina pressed a soft kiss to my cheek.

"You're an idiot sometimes, you know that?"

I nodded because she was definitely right.

She giggled and I swear it nearly made my heart explode.

"But you're right,” a visible warmth spread up her neck and to her ears, “I do love you."

From behind us, Sei and Lua began pretending to gag.

“Get a room, you two!” Yoojung shouted from somewhere in the front.

All I could do was laugh as Rina’s blush intensified.

I guess our secret was out now.

-

A/N: I decided to finally post a story for a group besides gugudan. I love Weki Meki so much, but they’re super underrated like our gugugirls. If you don’t already stan them, you definitely should :)

This is just a fun little story since my last update (The Formalities of Friendship Ch. 5) was kind of sad. Plus Elly and Rina are my WeMe OTP, and there are barely any stories about them on here lol.

This is kind of based on episode 461 of Happy Together from 160818. It’s an episode with Sejeong (gugudan), Sunny (SNSD), Solji (EXID), Chahee (Melody Day), Solbin (Laboum), and Yerin (GFriend). In the interview, they say something along the lines of when you're single, you describe your ideal type generally, but when you're in a secret relationship, you start to picture the person in your head, so your answers become more specific.