11 PM KST

Friday night, 2nd week of February

(Same night Hyewon did a Live Q and A)

Text message from: Choi Yena

Yena: Hyewon!!!

Yena: Why did you do a live without me *crying emojis*

Yena: This is your first time to do a live on your vlog and yet you won’t even invite your friend aka MEEEEE

Hyewon: You can’t even look my roommate in the eye smh *rolling eyes emoji*

Hyewon: You only visit me when Yuri isn’t in the apartment, and you invite me over to your house SPECIFICALLY telling me not to bring Yuri

Hyewon: And yet you wanted me to invite you to my Q and A live, which I just spontaneously thought of, while Yuri is there as well?

Yena: …

Yena:I want to do a live Q and A with my childhood friend, let’s do one soon!!!

Yena: I wanna promote Minju to your fans as well -

Hyewon: SMH

Hyewon: You’re really just gonna ignore what I said about Yuri, huh?

Hyewon: You’re just like Yuri whenever I ask about what happened between you two

Hyewon: I don’t know what’s the deal, alright, and I wish you two would just kiss and make up (not literally ohgod please don’t)

Yena: It’s nothing to worry about, Hyewon. Really! Are you still up to meeting Minju and I at the usual place next week?

Hyewon: Mhmmmmmm… If you say so. And yes, I can’t wait to see you both!

Hyewon heaved out a sigh at her chat with Yena. What’s the deal with her and Yuri? Hyewon wished that Yuri or Yena would tell her what happened, but apparently, both of them didn’t want to talk about it. Hyewon figured that it wasn’t her business, whatever was going on between the two. She switched to her email to check if Sakura had contacted her yet, but so far, there hasn’t been any.

Maybe she’s busy editing her video for tomorrow, Hyewon thought. Hmmmm… I’m not sleepy yet so I’ll just watch some anime until I feel sleepy. Maybe she’ll contact me by then.

Hyewon was about to open her laptop when a beep came from her phone. She checked which notification this was, and was surprised to see an email from Sakura.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Video Collab

Good evening Kang Hyewon. Long time, no talk! I am contacting you with regards to the collab you asked for. My friends and I talked about it… and... would it be okay if we did the collab in Korea? My friends would love to be a part of the vlog if we’ll do the collab there as they’ve always wanted to visit Korea.

My friend, Yabuki Nako, will be paying for the trip and accomodations. You need not worry about the expenses, if ever you accept my conditions for collaborating. Reply to me ASAP.  Yoroshiku!

Sincerely,

Miyawaki Sakura aka kurasake

Hyewon immediately typed out a reply, excited about the possible collaboration she’ll be having with her idol.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Miyawaki-san, I’d be honored to have you here in Korea. I’ll treat you and your friends with the best places in Korea, and all food-related items on your trip will be my treat. I would like to suggest having you guys toured in Korea as part of my vlog, which will be uploaded on my channel, and a gaming tournament on yours. I am willing to tour you in our PC bang cafes after the formal tour here in Seoul. If you have any more suggestions, please let me know!

P.S. Please tell me when you will be able to book a flight to Korea so that I am able to free up my schedule. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Kang Hyewon aka mukbangkang

Japan, same time as Korea

SakuNaHii’s apartment

Nako opened the door to her and Sakura’s room, knowing full well that around this time Sakura would have been done editing her video. As much as she enjoyed sleeping in Hiichan’s room every time Sakura is busy with her video processing, she wanted to at least give Hiichan her own space after dancing for hours.  

She found  Sakura in her gaming chair staring blankly at her screen, and Nako raised her eyebrows at that. She walked to where Sakura was sitting and waved her hand in front of Sakura’s face.

No reaction.

Great, she fell asleep with her eyes open again. Nako thought, sighing as she thought of a way on how to wake up her friend. No matter how many times I’ve seen this happen, it still creeps me out a little.

A notification popped out on Sakura’s computer screen, and Nako saw that it was an email from Hyewon. Nako clicked on the message to read its contents, just in case it needed an urgent reply. Upon seeing that all food related costs will be sponsored by Hyewon, Nako let out a squeal of happiness.

“Yes! All the food will be sponsored so I can still have a bit of money left to buy merch!”

“Hnnnnnnh, Nako? What are you doing to my computer?”

Nako turned to look at Sakura, who shook her head to wake herself up and look at Nako sleepily.

“Ah! Saku-chan! You’re awake! Sorry, did I wake you up? I checked your email ‘cause Hyewon replied, basically asking us when we’re able to go to Korea and if you have any suggestions regarding the collab! She’s going to give us a formal tour around Seoul!”

Sakura blinked, obviously still groggy and half awake. Nako wondered whether Sakura even understood what she said. Sakura stretched in her gaming seat and stood up.

“I’ll leave you to plan the tour for us, Nako. I’ll just suggest what game Kang-san and I can do together. I’ll send an email to her once you have planned everything with Hiichan.”

Sakura walked to her bed and plopped down, not even bothering to fix herself from her lanky position.

“Oyasuminasai, Nako.”

Nako just shook her head and proceeded to put Sakura’s computer to sleep. She fixed her bed and tucked herself in, ready to sleep. She figured that she and Hiichan can just plan the tour tomorrow while Sakuchan makes breakfast.

“Oyasuminasai, Saku-chan.”

One week later

Saturday night, 10 PM, 3rd week of February

Eunbi’s apartment

Eunbi and Chaeyeon were at the couch relaxing, fiddling on their phones and chatting occasionally with each other. Yujin and Wonyoung were both surprisingly tired that they went to sleep immediately, which is something that Eunbi is grateful for. Chaeyeon was just watching some of Hyewon’s previous vlogs, while Eunbi was on her earphones watching Sakura’s latest video.

Eunbi had been busy memorizing her script, practicing her expressions and lines. This week, she had just attended a few pre-drama interviews and press conferences. Eunbi had been stressed before, during, and after those events, and the only thing that can calm her down is watching Sakura on her gaming channel.

Eunbi really doesn’t know why she prefers watching the brown haired Japanese girl playing games, but there’s just something about Sakura that Eunbi gets instantly drawn into once she starts watching. As much as Eunbi wants to understand Japanese, her busy schedule prevents her from doing some self-learning. The only Japanese words she’s learned the meaning to are yabai, muzukashii, hontoni, subarashii, and daisuki; which were the most used words that Sakura uses in her vlogs. Eunbi could have asked Chaeyeon to help her learn Japanese, but she couldn’t bring herself to explain to her best friend that she ended up binge watching Sakura’s gaming streams simply because of the girl’s alluring charm.

Eunbi had formed a habit of reading the comments after Sakura’s video ends, occasionally finding a comment in Hangul or English that could at least give her a bit of context as to what game Sakura was playing and what Sakura’s goals for the game were.

Eunbi was watching Sakura build something on her game, becoming increasingly happy and relaxed as Sakura’s stream continued. Eunbi watched until the end, then proceeded to read the comments section.

She was surprised to see Mukbang Kang as the top comment, with her comment written in Japanese. She checked the replies and all she could understand was #KangKuraCollab written in English. She searched Naver and her new Twitter app for the hashtag, and it was only filled with screenshots of Hyewon’s comment and Sakura’s reply to it. Eunbi raised her eyebrows at this, panicking at what could the comment and hashtag possibly mean and if it meant that something was going to happen.

She side-eyed Chaeyeon, contemplating whether she should ask her to translate the comment or not. Eunbi was having an inner conflict with either keeping Sakura as her little guilty pleasure, or knowing the contents behind the comment and the hashtag. She furrowed her eyebrows and debated whether asking Chaeyeon would be worth it.

In the end, Eunbi’s curiosity won against keeping her little secret. She just had to know what was up with that comment and hashtag, and asking Chaeyeon was the fastest way to know.

She straightened her back and cleared , getting Chaeyeon’s attention. Chaeyeon removed her earphones and raised her eyebrow at Eunbi.

“Hey, Chae… you know Japanese right?” Chaeyeon just tilted her head at Eunbi, looking confused.

“I don’t quite get what you mean. Do I know someone Japanese or do I know Japanese, as in the language?”

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