#7: sandoitchi!

Tags: canon verse (...i guess that's what we have to call it), slice of life, established relationship

notes: tbh this has been sitting in my drafts since the inkigayo sandwich nonsense first popped up but since im really just zzz about school rn, here is a mindless splat of words for your fanfic consumption

disclaimer: usual personal ethics & rationalisation & mental gymnastics things made about RPF-fic applies despite "canon" setting!! (yes, i think they're cute, and i want them to return from the war for fanservice/genuine friendshippy interactions, but no i dont actually need to think that they're whatever variation of this irl.) // sadly i don't own red velvet - if i did i would march up to SBS's doors and also invest in marketing RV more.  

She steps out of the washroom, careful to not wipe her wet hands on her stage outfit.

Giggles are heard. A shy smile appears in front of her. Someone taller. Most of them are taller than she is anyway. Maybe she’s seen her somewhere on Naver before. She feels slightly bad that she can’t remember the girl’s name.

“Seulgi-ssi, right? Can I give you my number?”

“Sure,” Seulgi says easily. “Your Kakao ID, maybe?”

“That’ll be great!” Her smile widens, still shy, cheeks red. “Here, I wrote it down here…”

Seulgi receives a small piece of paper taped onto an album, whose group name Seulgi’s not sure she recognises. There’s a name to the girl at least.

“Thank you. It’s a very pretty album.”

They don’t really get albums from the juniors nowadays, not unlike what it used to be apparently. Sunmi told her that when the Wonder Girls came back to Korea, they received a sample from a huge number of the junior groups then. By then, she mused, the groups outside of SM and JYP weren’t as fanatic about handing out albums to senior groups anymore. Yoona didn’t so much as complain about it than she laughed about it (there’s not enough space to put them all anyway, there are so many of them nowadays.)

“It’s not as pretty as yours, of course, sunbaenim, but I hope you will like it anyway.” The girl’s shy voice pulls her out of her musings and Seulgi looks up to catch the poor girl biting her bottom lip, clearly unsure what else she should say to try to prolong the conversation.

Seulgi saves her from embarrassing herself (further?). “I need to go. All the best for your performance, I hope it goes well!”

With that, Seulgi leaves; she’s knows she’s being watched as she heads back to their waiting room.

Yeri is the first to see it.

“Another one? Unnie, really?”

“Are you keeping it?” From Sooyoung.

Yeri again, “If you don’t, I wanna put it up. Like, in the middle of the living room. It’s kind of pretty.”

Rolling her chair over, to the half-hearted protests of their stylist, Seungwan exclaims, “Oh, oh, that rookie group! They sing well. What’s her name again?” Seulgi knows that the stylist-unnie is curious too.

“Er.” Seulgi shoves the album towards Seungwan’s general direction.

“Her handwriting is pretty.”

“Yeah, it is, I guess.”

“Her face is pretty. Do you think she’s the prettiest? Did you tell her that?”

“Seungwan.”

“Sorry.” Seungwan grins impishly, not sorry at all. Yeri’s been down lately so Seungwan seems to have found it in her to compensate for some of their maknae’s antics. “You should. You know. Tell the kid that she’s cute.”

Seulgi rolls her eyes, about to retort when she hears Joohyun’s annoyed “stop encouraging her" as she walks into the room, back from being paraded around to make nice with more Important People.

“No, no, I’m not going to text the kid,” Seulgi quickly clarifies. “She was just giving me an album anyway.”

“Oh?” Yeri’s face is suddenly interested. “Trouble in paradise?”

Joohyun’s jaw grits, but it’s, thankfully, not directed at Seulgi and more at Yeri. “There’s no harm in someone giving Seulgi an album, Kim Yerim.” Joohyun gingerly places herself on the bench by the door. Her gaze lowers from glowering at Yeri to level an even more baleful glare at her heels.

“Do they not fit well?” Seulgi asks, moving to sit next to Joohyun.

“Hmm?”

“Your shoes, I meant.”

Joohyun shakes her head. “Unnie, is there some way that we stop getting shoes from this brand? I hate wearing these things.”

Stylist-unnie laughs. “If I had the power to pick the exact sponsored items you guys get receive, I’d kick those out in a heartbeat too. Sorry, Joohyun.”

Joohyun pouts. “Oh well. Worth a try I guess.”

“What’s wrong with them?” Seulgi peers at her own feet, which feel fine despite the footwear.

“They cut into my feet.” Joohyun picks up a sandwich from the side table. “Whose is this?”

“Seulgi-unnie’s,” Sooyoung supplies. “Someone left it here for her when she went to the bathroom.”

“Huh?” Seulgi reaches to take the sandwich from Joohyun’s hands, the plastic wrap crinkling loudly beneath her fingers. “Who’s it from?”

“Dunno. Some guy? He didn’t stay long enough for me to recognise him.”

“You’re sure it’s for me?”

“Yeah.” Seungwan nods.

“Look, it even says, for Seulgi-noona!” Yeri chuckles, reaching forward to peer more closely even as their stylist attempts to pull her backwards so she could fix Yeri’s hair.

“It so doesn’t,” Seulgi grumbles, tearing the plastic wrap open. It’s one of those terrible constructions of Broadcast Company Food. “Do you think we might ever get better sandwiches when we come for Inkigayo?”

“Nope. They’re all terrible.”

“And the calories…” Seungwan sighs mournfully. “Why eat something that’s both fattening and disgusting?”

Seulgi shrugs, inclined to eat the sandwich anyway. She’s starving. “Can I? I’ll reapply the lipstick after.”

Their stylist sighs. Concedes that lipstick won’t take 10000 years to touch up anyway. Yeri’s hair, on the other hand, is refusing to be tamed. Their stylist is already preoccupied by another battle – fighting Seulgi’s hunger pangs is a fight she doesn’t want to attempt, especially not at the same time, so she just nods and waves the hand she frees from the depths of Yeri’s tangled hair, muttering something about how Yeri needed to visit the salon more often.

They’re kind of dubious, these sandwiches. Whoever decided to put egg and jam between two pieces of white bread needed to re-evaluate certain things about their life. Pronto.

She chomps into it anyway. It’s a bit indelicate but hey, it gets the job done.

Hang on.

It’s a soggy, gooey mess when she pulls it out of the wrapping. At least she didn’t bite into the main chunk of it. Trying to get paper out of would’ve been a hassle. Messier than the stylist would’ve preferred, no doubt.

Not another one.

She swallows what she managed to eat of the sandwich.  

She glances to her side. Joohyun’s eyes are shut, the back of her head leaning against the wall. Seulgi knows Joohyun would’ve opted to lean on her if she wasn’t worried her makeup might get smudged on Seulgi’s white top.

Before her, Yeri’s leaned forward with rapt attention. Sooyoung and Seungwan pretend they don’t care as much, but they can’t really hide their amusement from their faces either.

So, Seulgi clears . With her best imitation of a low baritone and what is possibly the most valiant attempt made of all time at deciphering jam-&-egg-mayo-covered words, she begins to read.

“Dear Seulgi-noona,

“I remember meeting you last week. I am so happy I finally got to meet you in person, and we introduced ourselves to each other. Such luck, I thought! You’ve been my ideal type for a very long time. You’re very pretty, Seulgi-noona. Will you grant me the same luck again, by texting me on Kakao at—”

“Give me that.”

Before Seulgi can finish, Joohyun snatches the piece of paper from Seulgi’s hands, crushes it, and tosses it into the bin. Seulgi winces. There’s jam and egg mayo all over Joohyun’s hands now.

Sooyoung groans. “Unnie, you’re a spoilsport.”

Yeri leans back into her chair, huffing. (“Stop moving, Kim Yeri!”) “At least let her tell us who it was!”

“Too late,” Joohyun grouses. “Urgh. What kind of confession was that? Such luck, I thought!”

Seulgi knows better than to laugh. Not now, when Joohyun’s this tired. Instead, her clean hand reaches over to rub the back of Joohyun’s hand.

“Definitely not the worst one out there though,” Seulgi reminds her, “Remember that kid? The one who told you your eyes were like diamonds? Not that you aren’t like, priceless, but…”

“Oh, ew.”

“They’re back at it again, Yerim-ah. Fun’s over I guess.” Sooyoung picks up her phone, tuning her members out. She’s not that interested in hearing them grouch or sap at each other, or whatever it is that the two of them did.

“They’re no fun,” Yeri agrees. She turns her attention to Seungwan, who gulps. “So…”

She doesn’t realise she’s watching her members with a grin until Joohyun’s pout-laden whine jerks her back to the present, demanding her attention. “Seulgi.”

“Oh, sorry. Should we go wash our hands?”

Joohyun makes a small whining noise. “Feet.”

“Not that I want to cut in on… you two, but just get cleaned up in the next fifteen minutes so I can fix your faces after I’m done with Yeri. Stay still, Kim Yeri! Why are you fidgeting so much today?”

“Yes ma’am,” Seulgi mock salutes. The stylist sighs, wondering why her Sunday’s being spent dealing with a bunch of toddlers. Seulgi knows that their stylist’s never quite sure whether she prefers their occasional childish antics or their grownup-esque professionalism.

“So… you’re tired?”

“Yeah,” Joohyun’s voice is a lot more childlike than usual. “I didn’t like one of the guys I had to go meet. He was… pushy. Almost creepy. Almost.”

“Almost?”

“Well. For men like him, it’s almost. I can deal.”

She’s not sure what really comes over her when she picks up Joohyun’s hand to the mayo/jam off it. A squeal sounds and Joohyun’s hand almost smacks Seulgi before Joohyun catches herself from smudging the mess onto her costume (a mortal sin, by stylist-unnie’s standards they are sure), and elbows her instead.

“Ouch.” She massages herself, her good-natured tone belying the attempt at a menacing frown. “That hurt.”

“Oh yeah? That was for the sandwich. And the album.”

“Hey, hey, I thought you said that there was nothing wrong with one of the hoobaes giving me an album!”

“Well. So I did. Hmph. It’s for the sandwich still.”

“It wasn’t me who accepted it…” Seulgi pouts too. “Sorry about the sandoitchi.”  

“Sandoitchi? Saendeuwichi.”

Seulgi shakes her head. “No, sandoitchi’s cuter.”

“Back at this again? We both know you’re always going to default to Korean, Seul.”

“Sandoitchi.” She insists, smiling. She picks Joohyun’s hand up to plant a kiss against the back of it. “Here. Not a this time. Sandoitchi.”  

“You’re so silly. Fine. Sandoitchi, for today.”  

Seulgi hums. She can tell that Joohyun’s appeased anyway.

Her lipstick’s stained Joohyun’s hands. She presses another kiss, this time on Joohyun’s wrist bone. Then the hollow of her wrist. Joohyun almost laughs when Seulgi twists her hand somewhat so she can reach the other side of her wrist.

Beside Sooyoung, Seungwan groans. “I’m not sure if I can watch them anymore.”

“Then don’t. Stop ignoring me, oi,” Yeri calls out at her. “Seungwan-unnie—"

END but also: https://bit.ly/2TsItR7 is the associated gif's link // this was an excuse to write a fic with this gif from the Sappy MV (join me, the lone #Cookie Jar stan, and listen to their japanese singles...)