The rest of the week passed by relatively quickly, between Seungwan's excitement at their Sunday plans and her apprehension at the mystery that was the Saturday get-together. She'd texted Sooyoung a few times, asking her about the reason behind the party, but every time her only response was a winky face emoji, so that was a dead end. As a result, Saturday came around and Seungwan’s worry only grew as the hours ticked by and the morning turned into lunch-time into afternoon.

Of course, when she called Seulgi for emotional support, her friend only told her that she was making a big deal out of nothing. She already knew that much, obviously. She'd just been hoping that Seulgi might let her escape the whole thing altogether, maybe even provide an excuse.

“Seungwan, she invited you personally. She told you to be there,” Seulgi reminded her over the phone. “You can't skip it for no reason,” she finished, sounding serious.

Seungwan sighed. “I know,” she whined as she eyed herself in the mirror. Maybe she should choose a different jacket. “But what if they're going to haze me? Or, like, sit me down and tell me I need to stop dropping by?”

“Why would they have a party to tell you they don't want you around?,” Seulgi asked, clearly laughing. “Sounds needlessly cruel.”

“You didn't say anything about the hazing,” Seungwan jumped in, suddenly convinced that that was exactly what was going to take place. Sooyoung and Yerim had gotten into Joohyun's head and now Seungwan was going to be humiliated in front of her and, well, hadn’t that already happened? Maybe she'd been getting hazed all this time.

“It's just a party, you'll find out more when you get there,” Seulgi offered simply. Seungwan remembered that the jacket she was looking for was in the laundry pile and gave up on changing her outfit.

“That's the point,” she retorted in exasperation. “I hate the mystery, why couldn't they just tell me?” she huffed out. She sat on her bed and considered just taking a nap instead of leaving. She could tell them she'd been sick. No, then she couldn't go out with Joohyun on Sunday. She was caught in a trap of her own making.

“Just go to the party, Wannie. If it's bad, you can say you told me so, I know how that always cheers you up.”

“Only because it's so rare,” she answered with an eyeroll. “And it won't cheer me up,” she added as an afterthought. “Nothing will cheer me up and I'll wallow all day.”

There was a brief silence. “What if I bring you ice cream?”

“Tiramisu?” she asked suspiciously.

“Obviously.”

She sighed and got back up. “Fine,” she muttered, dragging out the word. She stomped her way across the room, even though she knew Seulgi couldn't hear it. “I'm going, but only because you're making me, so if anything goes wrong it's your fault,” she informed her friend with finality.

“That's fair,” Seulgi replied with amusement. Seungwan could almost see the bright smile she knew was plastered on Seulgi's face. “Let me know how it goes.”

She hung up and walked out warily, waving goodbye at Mr. Fluffers, who didn't bother to get up from his place on the sofa. On the hallway, she took a deep breath and raised her hand. She stood frozen to the spot, well aware that this was the last chance for escape. Finally, she relaxed her tensed muscles and knocked.

The door opened after a moment and she was pulled into the apartment by an excited Joohyun, who quickly shut her only means of escape and turned to her with a bright smile on her face. “Surprise!” her neighbour exclaimed with enthusiasm. “It's an intervention!”

“Okay,” Seungwan replied with some confusion. She studied the room, finding only the usual occupants: Joohyun and the two younger women. Curiously enough, they were all looking her way expectantly. Then it hit her. “Oh, for me,” she stated more than asked, pleased to have made sense of the situation.

Joohyun nodded. Behind her, Yerim smiled predatorially.

Oh. It was an intervention for her. Right.

Her mind went blank as her brain fell into a kind of pleasant numbness, overwhelmed by the impressive amount of things she was feeling all at once. The pleasure at being proven right mixed with the surprise at the worst-case scenario actually happening, along with confusion as to the nature and reason for the intervention, and of course it was all drowned in a healthy dose of terror.

“An intervention for me,” Seungwan finally managed to push out of a mouth that felt like when she'd just left the dentist. Her palms were clammy, which she really hoped Joohyun wouldn’t notice. It wasn’t her best look. “That’s, uh… Why?”

“It’s a love intervention,” Joohyun explained cheerfully. She was still holding on to Seungwan’s arm, which she finally seemed to notice, mercifully releasing her and stepping backwards.

Her words eased the confusion somewhat, which only allowed the panic to emerge through the broken balance. Seungwan had stumbled into the nightmare scenario. This was the absolute opposite of everything she’d ever wanted. And how ironic that Joohyun herself was the instrument of her doom.

“I don't need a love intervention, I'm perfectly fine,” she began a little too quickly, words stumbling out of rapid-fire. “I have just the right amount of love in my life. Not too little but also not too much or not, like, unhealthy love. Just super great on the love front.”

Her vision had tunneled until all she could see was Joohyun, the one she needed to convince in order to escape this situation. But somewhere in the back of her mind, Seungwan could imagine Sooyoung and Yerim’s satisfied faces, gloating at her misery. This was all their fault, that much had been immediately clear. Joohyun would never come up with something this diabolical on her own.

“Oh, uh...” Joohyun seemed a bit taken aback at Seungwan's defensive response. “This is actually... about you asking that girl out,” she clarified, confirming Seungwan's worst suspicions. At least she could tell Seulgi she'd been right all along and eat delicious ice cream. That did make it a little better, kudos to Seulgi.

Somebody had come up behind her while she was lost in her own thoughts and was now slapping her back. She turned with vague curiosity and identified Sooyoung.

“You alright there?” Sooyoung asked with barely any concern, or at least it was well concealed under all that amusement. “You were, uh, groaning a little bit.”

Seungwan didn't bother explaining and just groaned a little louder in response. Turning back to Joohyun, she noticed the woman looked a little nervous.

“Is it too much?” Joohyun asked, holding her hands tightly together. “I thought it might be, but Yerim said it was fine,” she added, justifying herself. Yerim, who now stood next to Joohyun, smirked at her words without a trace of shame.

“It's... a little much,” Seungwan admitted with some hesitation. As much as she hated the situation, she didn't want to make Joohyun feel bad either. “But it's thoughtful, I guess,” she added quickly, alarmed at Joohyun’s downcast eyes. This was probably a mistake.

Joohyun frowned for a moment, then seemed to accept Seungwan's words and smiled once more. “Alright then, let's get back to it,” she said with excitement. Right, huge mistake. “Time to get over your fear once and for all and ask her out!” she concluded, squeezing Seungwan's arm for emphasis.

“I'm not... I'm not going to do that,” Seungwan replied truthfully. She gazed at the door longingly, wondering if it was all that impolite to just make a run for it. Joohyun caught her eyes and seemed to understand her thoughts because she charged right back into it.

“I really think you should,” she added forcefully. Seungwan started pulling her arm away and positioning herself as far out of Sooyoung's reach as possible. She was going to do it. She was going to run. “I think she likes you back,” Joohyun said quickly, clearly aware of Seungwan's intentions.

Seungwan's arm went slack in Joohyun's grip. She felt her heart jump until it seemed to be beating in . She was very scared and very worried and very confused and she really wished all this silly business would stop right about now. Recovering herself, she stepped away from the three women currently surrounding her and took a deep breath.

“Who likes me back, exactly?” she asked in a wavering voice, determinedly shoving away that spark of hope that had somehow bloomed in her chest. Stupid spark, stupid Seungwan. Stupid Yerim.

“Seulgi,” Joohyun replied matter-of-factly. She looked very proud of herself for piecing it together, which Seungwan would have found pretty cute if she'd had the brain space to process it. Unfortunately, her brain was entirely too busy trying to keep her alive amidst the chaos.

“I don't like Seulgi,” she stated quickly. “I mean, I like her, she's my best friend, just not like that,” she clarified. The younger women seemed amused by the turn of events, which of course they'd be, those demon children. Joohyun seemed frankly confused. “And she definitely doesn't like me back, she's ace.”

“Ace?” Joohyun asked simply.

“Aual aromantic. She doesn't like anyone like that,” Seungwan explained. Joohyun nodded but she still looked very lost.

“Oh. I didn’t think of that. I just... I really thought it was her. You seemed so close. And you mentioned it was a friend, and she's really the only friend of yours I know of,” Joohyun said, seeming like she was talking to herself more than anything.

For a moment, it appeared that this information would throw a definite snag in her plans, but Joohyun quickly shook herself out of her confusion, focusing on the task at hand and leaving the questions for later. “Well, regardless, I still think you should ask this girl out, whoever she is. I don't see why she wouldn't want to go out with you.”

It would be a very nice and flattering opinion if it weren't so ironically incorrect. Seungwan resisted the urge to sigh dramatically. It was a little harder to resist the urge to cry, which would also be dramatic but with the added benefit of being absolutely mortifying.

She knew she should probably respond to Joohyun’s words at some point, but it was frankly very difficult to handle everything that was happening and she had to prioritize. Right now, the priority was calming down and not crying in public and possibly figuring out how to get out of this. Standing at a distant second was verbal communication, so they’d just have to stare at each other silently for a little longer while Seungwan adjusted.

Someone cleared . “Why don’t Yerim and I…” Sooyoung began a bit uncertainly. The silent staring had probably thrown her for a loop, that was the usual effect. “...take Seungwan into the bedroom over there and have a little chat just the three of us?”

The words themselves spelled out a scary scenario, but something in Sooyoung’s tone conveyed a safety that Seungwan desperately craved. Or maybe it was just the promise of distance from Joohyun and her completely unreasonable demands. Whatever it was, Seungwan offered no resistance as her arm was taken by the taller woman and she was pulled away from Joohyun.

The moment the bedroom door closed behind them, Seungwan felt her mind become clearer. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she whispered angrily as the fear gave way to other, more aggressive emotions.

The two women seemed a little startled at her change in attitude but weren’t bothered for long. Yerim relaxed back into a smirk quickly. “She really wanted to help,” she replied with amusement, quirking her head towards the door to indicate Joohyun.

“She thinks I like Seulgi! Why did you not tell her that she was wrong?” Seungwan demanded, exasperated but not that surprised at the two women’s complete inability to take her seriously. She paced across the bedroom floor to release the nervous energy that suddenly filled her body.

“Um, we’ve never even seen you and Seulgi interact,” Sooyoung pointed out from where she sat on Joohyun’s bed. “The only reason we know you’re not into her is because you’re in love with Joohyun or whatever. Should we have told her that?”

Yerim snorted at Sooyoung’s faultless logic. Demon children. “No, you idiot, you should have told me about it, I would have cleared it up,”Seungwan hissed in exasperation. She began pacing faster.

“I’m the idiot, but you’re the one stuck at a love intervention held by her crush,” Sooyoung muttered as she inspected her nails.

“Yes, because you did nothing to stop it!” Seungwan exploded, raising her voice. She caught herself and quickly lowered it again before continuing. “Yerim probably encouraged her.” Yerim shrugged, which was as close to a confession as she was likely to get.

“We’ll split the difference and say that you’re both idiots, then,” Yerim suggested with a smirk. Sooyoung raised an eyebrow but didn’t bother to respond. “But more importantly, what are you going to do now?”

“Probably not tell Joohyun how you feel, because that would be too simple and normal,” Sooyoung intervened, sounding bored already.

“No, obviously not that.” Sooyoung sighed. Seungwan ignored her and stopped pacing, wondering what she should do next. She stood there for a moment, then dropped down onto the bed beside the two women. “I have no idea what to do,” she admitted with a groan.

“Better think of something fast,” Yerim added unhelpfully. “Unless you want to jump out of the window.”

“I’ll throw you out the window,” Seungwan muttered under her breath. She got up, already dreading the conversation to come, and crossed the bedroom in a few steps. Then she was back in the living room, alone with a nervous Joohyun.

“Is everything alright? I heard some yelling, are you angry?” Joohyun asked quickly. “It’s not their fault, really, it was my idea.”

“I’m not angry, it’s okay,” Seungwan started, already uncomfortable. She took a deep breath before continuing. “Look, Joohyun, I know that you had good intentions with this, but…”

“It’s only because you said that you didn’t want to talk about it,” Joohyun rushed to explain. “So I thought I should find another way to help. A way that didn’t involve talking.”

“Well, when I said that, that’s not exactly what I meant. It’s just, I…” Seungwan trailed off, unsure how to approach it. Finally, she groaned inwardly and carried on. “Okay, so, I can’t really tell you why, but basically, I would really prefer it if you didn’t try to help me with my love life. At all. I’m sorry, I promise you didn’t do anything wrong, I just… Can’t tell you why,” she finished lamely, already feeling like an idiot.

Joohyun’s face fell for a moment. “Oh, Seungwan, I know why,” she said sadly, fixing her piercing eyes on Seungwan’s. Every cell in Seungwan’s body immediately flew into panic mode. Of course, she couldn’t have been more obvious if she’d written it on a neon sign. Her life was over and she’d have to move in with Seulgi and sleep on her couch forever.

“It’s because I have no experience,” Joohyun concluded. A small self-deprecating smile grew on her face, like she was laughing at her own ineptitude. “I tried my best to help, but I think it’s painfully obvious I don’t know what I’m doing. You don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings, it’s alright. I promise I’ll stop with these disastrous attempts to help,” she finished in an amused tone that didn’t completely match the look in her eyes. Before Seungwan could reply, she’d already walked to the kitchen to clean up.

The bedroom door opened and Seungwan was dragged back inside by two giggling women.

“You are so lucky that you fell for the densest person possible,” Yerim declared with amusement. “Anyone else would have seen right through your ridiculous excuse.”

“I kind of wish she had, this is going to drag on forever at this pace,” Sooyoung added with an eyeroll.

“Would you two just shut up?” Seungwan asked in a strained voice. They stopped to look her way and seemed to finally understand the situation.

“Are you… mad at us?” Sooyoung asked in surprise.

“Yes, actually I am. I just hurt Joohyun’s feelings, which isn’t really something I was planning on doing, ever, and it’s all because of you. I get that it’s funny for you to tease me, but at least leave Joohyun out of it, it’s not her fault,” Seungwan finished in a hurt voice. The younger women seemed taken aback at her outburst.

“Yeah, well, if you care so much about her feelings why don’t you just tell her the truth?” Yerim spat back.

“Yerim…” Sooyoung said simply, her tone suggesting that her friend should back off.

“You know what? You’re right, it’s all my fault,” Seungwan concluded tiredly, then turned around to leave. The younger women stayed behind, bickering in low tones.

At the kitchen, she told Joohyun she was going home and apologized for the spoiled afternoon. Joohyun dismissed her worries with a wave of her hand and a wide smile that seemed a little too fragile to be real. Seungwan ignored the urge to apologize again, or hug her, or just tell her the truth, and instead walked wearily across the hallway to her own home, where she sat on the sofa and stared at her phone, trying to summon the energy to call Seulgi.

A few minutes passed this way, then there was a knock at the door. Opening it, she found herself looking up at Sooyoung, who was holding a plate with a piece of cake.

“I brought you a slice,” she said, holding out her arm. “Joohyun bought it. She wasn’t sure if you’d be offended that it’s store-bought, you know, being such a proficient baker. But hey, free cake, right?”

Seungwan stared at her in silence, then reached out mechanically to take the plate. Two forks clattered with the movement. Sooyoung looked at the forks, then back at her, expectantly. Seungwan sighed.

“Would you like to come in and have some?” she offered dully, then moved to the table and sat down without waiting for a reply. Sooyoung joined her moments later.

“So, uh, sorry. Like, about the intervention and stuff,” Sooyoung mumbled. She picked up a fork and poked at the cake, waiting for a response.

“Yeah, well,” Seungwan said slowly, but didn’t bother following up on the statement. Instead, she picked up her own fork and stabbed the cake experimentally. Didn’t seem too dry. She put the fork down and sat back despondently. “Yerim was right, anyway. I caused this problem, not you two.”

“Does that mean you’re not mad at us?” Sooyoung asked around a mouthful of cake.

“No, I’m still mad,” Seungwan said with a sigh. “But less at you and more at me, I guess.”

“If you want my opinion,” Sooyoung started, packing more cake into her fork. “you let it drag on for too long. As soon as I have feelings for someone, I tell them. That way it’s easier to move on when they reject you.”

“When?” Seungwan asked with a raised eyebrow. “If?” she suggested in alternative.

Sooyoung shrugged. “Semantics,” she replied simply, shoving another forkful of cake into .

“Okay, that’s a little worrying, we should probably talk about that some time,” Seungwan remarked. “Not right now, though, I’m too sad.” She prodded the cake some more, considering taking a bite, then gave up and left it to Sooyoung.

“How’s Joohyun? She seemed a little down.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of disappointed. She was really excited for the intervention, for some weird reason. But she’ll bounce back, don’t worry,” Sooyoung reassured her as she finished the cake. “I should go back and help Joohyun clean up the rest of the stuff. I’ll tell her you liked the cake, that should cheer her up.”

Sooyoung got up but didn’t move to the front door. Instead, she hovered uncertainly by the table. After a moment of indecision, she opened . “Sorry I ate all the cake,” she said awkwardly. Seungwan shrugged to communicate that she didn’t mind and Sooyoung walked out of the apartment.

About thirty minutes later, there was another knock on the door, and Seungwan opened it to let Seulgi and her two large containers of ice cream into the apartment. They spent the next few hours eating and watching some mind-numbing television, interrupted by occasional bouts of complaining or commiserating on Seungwan’s part.

It was after Seulgi had reassured her that Joohyun didn’t hate her for probably the hundredth time that Seungwan finally sighed and turned off the television.

“I wish they wouldn’t make it so hard for me,” she confessed, poking at the sleeves of the comfy sweater she’d put on. “I get that my crush is funny and all, but still… Isn’t it kind of mean to keep teasing me about it all the time?”

Seulgi turned to hold Seungwan’s hands and stop their fidgeting. Then she tugged on them gently until Seungwan looked up at her smiling face. “Wannie, you do realize that they’re not just doing that for their own amusement, right?” Seungwan quirked a suspicious eyebrow in reply. “It sounds like they’re kind of… dumb about it, but still. They’re clearly trying to push you and Joohyun together.”

Seungwan sighed dramatically and tried to fling herself backwards to lie down on the sofa, but Seulgi’s grip kept her in place. “Well, they’re terrible at it,” she complained instead, her voice taking on the familiar whining tone that she used when she was secretly pleased but didn’t want to admit it. Seulgi only laughed in response, not bothering to disagree.

They sat in silence for a moment, playing with their entangled hands. Then Seungwan broke into peals of laughter that nearly startled Seulgi out of her seat. “Joohyun thinks I like you,” she finally gasped out.

“You mentioned,” Seulgi remarked with amusement. She looked down at their hands, finally understanding the reason for Seungwan’s laughter and let out a chuckle of her own. “I wonder why.”

“Seulgi, she’s never even seen us together,” Seungwan pointed out, her laughter subsiding into giggles.

At this, Seulgi’s laughter joined her own. “She did follow me to the diner that night,” she recalled, freeing one of her hands to poke at Seungwan’s side. “Maybe she was spying on us,” she suggested in a conspiratorial tone.

Seungwan laughed even harder at that, making it a little difficult to breathe. She tried to slap Seulgi’s hand away, but she was yanked by her captured hand instead, falling forwards onto Seulgi’s lap. She turned around to face her friend, who seemed invested in her fantasy narrative.

“She probably heard us coming in, you were making a lot of noise,” she continued in between giggles. “She looked through the keyhole and there we were, whispering.” She lowered her voice as though emulating their whispered conversation. “Holding hands, hugging. You get really touchy when you’re drunk,” she added, her voice back to its regular volume.

Seungwan groaned and tried to roll away from Seulgi’s clutches and onto the floor, which her friend attempted only half-heartedly to prevent. Unfortunately, the distance gained wasn’t enough to shut Seulgi’s voice out, and the carpet wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the sofa.

“Standing there, looking at us, she started feeling something. Maybe curiosity. Maybe… a little… jealousy,” Seulgi said dramatically, dragging out the last word. “So before she could stop herself, she was out the door, chasing me through the night. She needed to know what I have that she doesn’t.”

Still lying face-down on the carpet, Seungwan reached out a prodding hand, trying to find a piece of Seulgi that she could smack. “That doesn’t even make any sense,” she said in a muffled voice.

“The woman threw you a love intervention, I’m not sure making sense is a requirement with her,” Seulgi pointed out. Seungwan only shrugged. She did have a point.

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A/N: And that's the end of Act 1! Hope you're enjoying the story so far :) Thank you for all the nice comments and support, it's so lovely and it makes me really happy ^^