Supper and a movie. The slow evening that really feels best for a homebody, with nowhere else to be and nowhere else to go, not having to worry about anything but the way someone's palm was curled around her hip, resting on her thigh. 

This kind of warm feeling. Comfortable, yet fuzzy, and fluttering. 

Indeed, it was a cosy night in the dorm as Bomi fused into Chorong's side in front of the TV, lost in the comfort as members came and left, smiling not wanting to disturb them. 

Although the two of them together had never been a rare sight, nowadays, Chorong relenting in skinship with Bomi was. Even just with their arms around each other like this, these days Chorong acted a bit more consciously of it, not wanting to leave out the other members. Their leader was continually thinking of the group first and the discomfort that might come from watching a couple, only allowing herself to indulge in those little things when she thought the girls weren't around. 

And tonight, Chorong wished nothing would stop this warm feeling. She could just nod off into her dreams, hugging the woman by her side, daring to lean her head onto her... 

Oh—

Chorong tensed, to realise the weight of her head really fell to Bomi's shoulder.

She was about to move when Bomi angled herself a little to make it more comfy, hand tightening at her hip, and tingles were running through Chorong. It could stiffen her up even more, but slowly, gradually, Chorong let herself relax. She melted back in, with Bomi's cheek resting atop her head. 

"Good?" Bomi asked simply, eyes on the movie but the action had distracted them both far more than they might admit. 

Trying not to blush, Chorong snuggled into her new home. 

"Yeah, good."

She could see it in the reflection of the TV. That image of them linked like that, felt so secure, like they've done it many times before. 

And they could talk for ages even after a movie, whether it was about the movie, or where they left off before. They hung around the bathroom, waiting for each other like kids, and after washing up, fingers were entangled in the trip just to reach Chorong's room. It was something so little that made them giddy, and still, the older woman found herself asking for kisses, little by little, more and more. 

"Aha! So you were being honest when you texted me!" Bomi said triumphantly with a playful twinkle in her eyes. Chorong's mouth opened and closed as she was put on the spot, struggling to find the words to retort. 

"Bbo– Bbom-ah!" 

"Bbo-bbom? You want another bbo-bbo?"

"Yah! Will you just give that a rest—" 

Her words magically ceased when Bomi kindly placed a kiss to the corner of , as an apology. Chorong found herself sighing at the effect this girl had on her. It was crazy.

"Sorry, I can't help myself," Bomi breathed as their foreheads rested. "Unnie, you're just so cute! And impossible not to tease."

Chorong could've shivered in denial as she often does, but she closed her eyes with a strong huff.

"Th.. That's right!" she deadpanned.

"Eh~eh? U-Unnie," Bomi laughed out loud. Small crescents came to Chorong's view as the younger knocked into her. "Ah~ Of course you would know who's the cutest in the world," her cheesy line came out. "I love you, unnie."

Dripping in honey-like sweetness, it was another hit to the target. 

"Aw, unnie! Don't avoid my eye contact," her voice continued to tease, lifting Chorong's chin up to meet her deep brown eyes.

It took a second. But sure enough, it came. 

"I love you too," Chorong blushed.

These simple words that held everything between them, that explained what they had, what's changed and stayed the same in the years they've known one another, in this life, living together in this dorm. Sweetness that couldn't be rivalled, only when they were alone. In that sweet time as the clock ticked slowly, warmth enveloping their stomachs, you could hear love songs beating from their hearts. 

And there, Bomi's fingers were threading through her hair, content just to rest by her side and nothing else. It was something so rare for Chorong, and she's never met someone like Bomi before, willing to wait for her in every way. It was scary, and it only made the love she felt grow, dreaming safely in the same bed with the person she loves. 

"So then, are we... girlfriend-girlfriend?"

A sparkle came to Chorong's eyes before it shifted into something playful. 

"Hmm. You're asking me like that?"

Bomi's eyebrows rose in a mix of genuine and feigned hurt. "You don't want to be my girlfriend?"

"No, no. I do..." Chorong began slowly as Bomi bobbed her head along with her. "But, where's the romantic part in courting someone?" 

Bomi's mouth dropped. "I thought I was being plenty romantic," she sulked. 

Chorong chuckled, leaning in to kiss Bomi to relieve that pressure, and it did just the trick at relaxing her tense shoulders. She could feel Bomi's heart pounding through her chest as the woman kissed her back, and Chorong could only wonder... The worries came to her just as the flutters did. 

But she wouldn't hide it. There was nothing but the truth to tell. 

"Sorry. I... I'm not used to that word." Chorong bowed her head nervously. Just imagining the label, for Bomi to be her...

"Girlfriend?" Chorong's breathing picked up, and Bomi fell into understanding, brushing the strands of hair away from her face. "Ah..."

A kiss to the forehead, like the reassurance of her protector. The love you'd give to a child, but Chorong felt she needed it. 

The leader would take on anything for her members, her team. Always. They were the family she couldn't imagine not having, and she would always be there, just a door away, for anything at all. 

And in those dark times of tears and cold sweat, she was a leader who held her own burdens; who wouldn't let inner demons affect people around her. With the stress she couldn't let out, who would take care of her?

The members were always there for her too, she knew, but sometimes... just the healing embrace of that one person special to her could put her at a lot of ease. 

When you have a soft spot for somebody, that person is bound to show differences and contradictions in you. What you do with them compared to what you do with anyone else... The layers that peel back, not minding when they feel ever so closer. It's scary, and yet, you want it and let things happen. The person you would say "yes" to where you thought you wouldn't. 

Only her.

It's that soft spot she's always had for Bomi as long as she can remember... and now, that same girl she met five years ago was changing her life — turning Chorong's world on its head, changing what she thought she knew, finding who she is again when she's with the woman. 

Loving her... will it come back to obliterate her, blow her away?

"Then how about I keep asking until you get used to it?"

"..What?"

Pulling the leader from her deep thoughts, Bomi let out a sheepish smile, leaning in briefly to seal the promise. 

"I said, I'll keep asking." Bomi had already set her mind to it. "And then you'll be my girlfriend."

Chorong nodded in a bit of a stupor, mind flying, unsure.

——

"Unnie! Let's be girlfriends," Bomi greeted brightly despite tired eyes. By Chorong's double take, Bomi wasn't about to expect anything back, and that was fine with her. 

"O-Oh, good morning, Bbom-ah," Chorong drawled, trying not to sound as startled as she might've looked, seeing Bomi so bright and early in the kitchen. "What are you—"

Speaking of Bomi in the kitchen, something was certainly smelling good. Her arm came over Bomi's shoulders to peer at the soup being prepared for breakfast. 

"I didn't know we still had more," Chorong quipped, except Bomi wasn't listening. The woman lightly blew over a spoonful to cool the heat, and with a hand underneath to steady its path, the spoon came towards Chorong.

"Here, unnie." She watched Chorong expectantly, fixed on her expression as the soup went down. "How is it?"

Bomi had a doe-eyed look as she stood in wait, and Chorong couldn't keep her poker face, breaking into a soft smile.

"Mmm, you try!" 

Was it so hard just to say it was delicious? With some quizzical eyebrows framing her face, Bomi inhaled her own spoonful. "Mm... It's good! It's tasty, isn't it?" Her head tilted a little as she thought about it more, hands reaching to fumble for ingredients. "Uh? Isn't it?"

"No, you're right, it is." 

Truthfully there was nothing wrong with it, yet Bomi was influenced by her expression and that was enough to make Chorong sway in adoration. Her arms wrapped around Bomi to stop her before she even realised what she was doing. 

"Really?" Bomi flushed a little, feeling Chorong nod and bounce behind her. She jittered, about to move on. "Then I guess that's the soup done—"

"Bbom-ah, how'd you get up so early?"

Chorong just continued in the girl's footsteps like a koala hanging onto her, and the question made Bomi spin around with a cheeky smile.

"I like to keep you on your toes."

Chorong almost laughed in her face as Bomi waved it off cheerily. "No, no, just woke up too early by chance, and I felt like surprising you." 

"Surprising me?"

"Surprising who now?" They jumped apart as Naeun suddenly appeared, rubbing her eyes at the confusing exchange. "Ohh... Bomi unnie... is cooking... This is too early for me to process."

Skinship lost in the surprise, Chorong turned back to Bomi apologetically as Naeun left the room, only for an unexpected sigh to pass through her lips. All of a sudden the girl was cooking up fried rice! When did she get it all ready? This really wasn't like Bomi.. 

She said it was a surprise but Chorong suspected it was more than that after what they talked about. Trying to impress her maybe, in her dorky way. 

After watching her a while, Chorong's eyebrow raised at Bomi teasingly.

"This isn't because yesterday I said ramyun isn't cooking..." 

"Well, maybe, and you said you want to be courted romantically," Bomi answered, removing her apron and hooking it in the closet. "And what's more romantic than cooking, right?" 

Chorong frowned for a moment, because that was her thing. "I think we have different ideas of romantic."

"Oh, pssh. You love my cooking when I try."

"When you try," Chorong emphasised. Unfortunately, those moments were still few and far between. "But I still appreciated it, Bbom. You didn't have to do this.." 

"No, I need to redeem myself from the ramyun! I can't have that be my girlfrie– I mean, potential girlfriend's only impression of me."

Don't think Chorong didn't notice that slip-up. They both averted their eyes shyly.

No one does things like this for her just for her affection. It wasn't what she thought the younger had in mind. Simply asking her was enough, but seeing Bomi do domestic things, Chorong wasn't sure how it made her feel. 

She looks... feminine. 

At the same time, Chorong slammed the observation.

Yah.. what am I thinking when Bomi is a girl too. Feminine... is that so bad? 

Chorong probably shouldn't be thinking like that. 

"You should cook more often," she said instead. 

The compliment left Chorong's mouth sincerely, but in her embarrassment she could never leave it at that. The leader then scorned, adding a skeptical side-eye. "But why do I think that's not gonna happen."

"Unnie!"

"It's okay. I like cooking for you," Chorong said with a pat on the girl's back and went to set up the table, missing the flutter that appeared in Bomi's step. 

——

Chorong wouldn't do anything in front of the members of course. But Bomi, well, she was another story. 

Suddenly acting so greasy, brushing Chorong's fingers as she held out her bowl. It might've been accidental, but Chorong was well-aware of Bomi's touch, and she had a feeling Bomi knew that too. 

Especially with the way the girl was shooting heart eyes across the table, and Chorong was avoiding it at all costs so she couldn't be teased by the grinning faces of her members.

And they were surely grinning. 

"What do you think of the food, Chorong unnie?"

The leader snapped out of her daydream and tried to control her expression. "I.. I like it."

"Whoo whoo~" Namjoo called all of a sudden, making Chorong catch sight of Bomi dancing in her seat from the side of her vision. 

Maybe that was the wrong answer. Or the right answer?

"Then, unnie, will you be my girlfriend?" Bomi pouted with big sparkly eyes, folding her hands in front of her in a wish.

"Omma-yah!" Eunji's accent slipped out, along with Hayoung's "Omo!" as the two troublemakers came into view, overhearing them around the corner from the kitchen. 

With the growing number of witnesses appearing, and Naeun was there in the chaos nonchalantly eating her food, a blushing Chorong brushed past them wanting to be left alone.

Namjoo was left sitting at the table, covering that fell open. "Heol."

"Is it finally happening?"

——

Chorong kissed her first.

Worried that she upset her in front of everyone, Bomi had followed the older into her room unsuspectingly, only for Chorong to secretly thank her in private. 

With her lips suddenly over hers, pressing their bodies up against the door, Bomi's mind went blank.

The dancer had considered holding back kisses to see if it would make a difference. To see if Chorong would give in, and ask her again. 

But it wouldn't matter if Chorong was just going to take one and kiss her first today.

"U-U-Unnie." <