“Yerim-ah, I’m not playing video games with your friends,” Seungwan protested as Yerim shook Seungwan’s arm back and forth with a pout.

“You can’t play with us, unnie. There’s only four spots on a team.” Yerim rolled her eyes as Seungwan sighed. “You don’t have a schedule for once and we had a skirmish night planned anyways so it’s perfect timing. Don’t you wanna meet the people I hang out with when you’re too busy for me?”

Yerim grinned, but Seungwan still felt guilty. Her little cousin had moved out to Seoul for university with the thought that Seungwan would be near by to keep an eye on her. However, with her busy idol schedule, visits with Yerim were brief and further between than either of them would like. “Alright, alright. When do I show up?”

“Hell yeah!” Yerim yelled, raising her arms in the air in victory. Seungwan feared for their drinks, her hand shooting out to keep her iced tea latte upright. “You don’t even need to bring cupcakes this time. Just show up around 8.”

“Isn’t that kind of late?

“We’re college kids. College gamers.” Yerim rolled her eyes again. “We start earlier on weekends but someone’s a famous idol who has to work instead of play games all day.”

“Ugh.” Seungwan shook her head with an exaggerated sigh. “What a rude kid.”

“You know you’re jealous.” Yerim winked, shooting a bright cheesy grin. But the mischievous expression soon morphed into a genuine smile. “I’m so excited; I’ve told them all about you. Not about you being Wendy!” She amended as Seungwan glared at her, not that Seungwan would seriously expect her cousin to spill the secret that she was the idol behind the solo project Red Velvet. “I told them about how dorky and awkward you are.”

“Of course.” Seungwan frowned. “But what if they do recognize me? You guys do stream, right?”

Yerim snorted, and Seungwan suspected she should be offended. “Don’t worry, unnie. “Wendy” and “Seungwan” are like night and day. I barely recognize you in the fan cams sometimes.”

“Which I’m sure you look up just to laugh at.”

“Unnie, girl crush does not suit you at all. I cringe every time I see your new photos.” Apparently imagining said photos, Yerim burst into giggles. Seungwan waited it out with a long-suffering sigh.

“So yeah, the girls won’t recognize you at all. And since we aren’t streaming this practice, you don’t have to worry about some fan speculating about your voice either.”

“I’ll be over this evening then,” Seungwan conceded, finishing off the latte in front of her. She stood up with a smile, pulling her mask back up over her face. Protests aside, she was happy to get a chance to hang out with Yerim again. “See you then.”

“Bye unnie! Don’t be late or I won’t answer the door!”

Seungwan waved as she walked out of the cafe, laughing although she knew it wasn’t an idle threat. If she was in the middle of a round, Yerim wouldn’t get up and answer the door. She had once left Seungwan standing outside for a half hour while finishing up when she really needed to pee. It'd been a very long half hour, and she'd never dared to be late again.

--

The photoshoot was a clean, minimalist concept. She was placed into simple dresses with clean lines against a black and white background. Her hair was flat ironed neat, makeup kept light. She was mostly asked to dispassionately stare at the camera, off into the distance, or at the pure white 3D shapes in front of her. The photoshoot ended with plenty of time for her to change and pick up cupcakes on the way to Yerim’s apartment.

“Unnie! You look nice today,” Yerim exclaimed as she opened the door.

“I don’t normally look good?” She stepped past Yerim with a laugh, trading her sneakers for a pair of slippers.

“Everyone looks good with cupcakes in their hands.”

“I get it, I get it. Here.” She shoved the box into Yerim’s hands before following her into the computer room. Despite the teasing, Yerim had a bright smile on her face and Seungwan knew the gesture was appreciated despite the younger girl ostensibly taking it for granted. The younger girl was a social butterfly, able to make friends easily. However, Seungwan knew that she missed her family, especially her little sisters, and Seungwan was the only family who could come visit in person.

“Are the other girls already online?”

Yerim nodded. “Everyone came early because they knew you were gonna be here. I just told them I was going to get the door. Here, sit here, unnie!”

Yerim patted the chair next to her, a small chair dragged from the living room that was dwarfed by the gigantic gaming chair beside it. “I plugged in my backup headset. It doesn’t have a mute feature like my main one so be careful. The mic picks up a lot of background noise.”

“So does that mean they can hear us now?” Seungwan asked, settling into the chair carefully.

“Uh... probably.” Yerim shrugged. “But it’s okay because it’s time to put on the headset.”

Seungwan sighed and picked up the headset she was directed to as Yerim collapsed into her chair and popped her own headset on.

“Yeri!” was the first thing Seungwan heard when she put on the headset. “Yeri, can she hear us yet?”

“Yeah, you dumbo. She’s right here. Say hi, unnie!”

“H-hi?” Seungwan said tentatively. She felt a bit silly; while she was used to talking to a camera, she wasn’t at all used to the idea of talking to strangers over the internet. She turned to Yerim, eyebrow raised. “Yeri?”

“They can still hear you, unnie!” Yerim told her as peals of laughter came over the headset. “It's from my username, see?” Yerim pointed at a part of the computer screen. Seungwan wasn’t familiar with the interface, but she saw the name Yerim was pointing out, 'yerimese’.

“Yeri,” Seungwan said flatly to renewed laughter.

"It's not that different, unnie," she said, shaking her head before looking back at the screen.“Okay, time for introductions. Everyone, this is Seungwan unnie.” There came a chorus of ‘hellos’ in response. “There’s Joy, who’s the next oldest. She’s our sniper. When she actually manages to snipe.”

“Heeeeey!” came a loud yell.

“Hi Joy?” Seungwan ventured, but apparently Yerim’s comment had hit its mark.

“You can’t talk when you can’t aim half the time.”

“Half the time is more than zero of the time—”

“Yeri. Joy.” A sharp tone cut through the argument.

“Yeah, mom?” Joy replied, voice bright and innocent.

Yet another voice Seungwan didn’t recognize jumped in before the conversation could continue. “Hi, I’m Seulgi!”

Seungwan laughed as Yerim resumed her introductions. “So, Seulgi unnie is the same age as you. She’s our healer.”

“You know I don’t know what any of that means,” she responded, pushing at Yerim’s shoulder.

“It’s time to learn.”

“Were you born in ‘94 too?” Seulgi asked.

“Yeah!”

“Then we’re the same age! Let’s be good friends!” Seulgi’s voice, even without a face to put to it, sounded so cheerful and genuine that Seungwan couldn’t help but take a liking to her.

“Okay!” Seungwan responded with a smile.

“And lastly,” Yerim continued, “is our tank and leader, Irene unnie.”

The name rung a bell from Yerim’s past stories about her friends. “Isn’t she the one you said gets hit on all the time when streaming?”

“All of us do because we’re girls on the internet,” Joy explained with a laugh. “But oh god, do you remember the face reveal?"

Seungwan jumped as Yeri shrieked beside her. "I never want to remember Irene unnie's face reveal day, holy . That day was a nightmare in chat."

"God, the modding I had to do," Joy complained. "Our channel was never the same. And we didn't even get to play that day."

“It was so embarrassing,” came a soft voice. "I didn't think it'd be such a big deal."

"It's because you're pretty, unnie," Seulgi said.

 "Honestly, I don't get the point of the face reveal at all, but the viewers appreciated it so..." Irene sighed. "Hi Seungwan-ssi. I hope we all get along well.”

Seungwan was embarrassed herself thinking that if Irene was as pretty as her voice, then she could understand the fuss. And she hadn’t even seen her face.

“Uh— m- me too.”

Yerim gave her an evil grin at her stumbling, but thankfully didn’t say anything out loud.

“So let’s get warmed up,” Irene continued, which led to a frenzy of protests.

“Aw but we just met Seungwan unnie—“

“Yeah shouldn’t we talk with her?”

“Are you trying to leave her out, unnie?”

“Cut it out you two. I’m going to put us in queue. Seungwan-ssi, Yeri-ah said you didn’t play so you should ask us if you have any questions. And don’t mind the young ones’ foul mouths.”

“Like you can talk—"

Seungwan laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen Yerim play video games before. I’ve heard plenty.”

The screen changed to what looked like a field. She could see four figures standing together.

“Is that you guys?” Seungwan asked. She’d watched Yerim play games before, but this one was new to her.

“Yeah, the one in front is me!”

“I’m the one dancing!” Seulgi chirped. Seungwan leaned to see better but none of the figures looked like they were dancing to her.

“Get out of the way, unnie,” Yerim complained, pushing at her shoulder without looking away from the screen. “I’ll elbow you if you’re right there when the match starts.”

Seungwan felt very out of her element watching them play. She couldn’t figure out where on screen to look, nor what exactly they were trying to do. All she could tell is that the timer kept going down and all of them seemed to be alive. Irene kept up a steady stream of soft-spoken commands while Yerim and Joy cursed at things Seungwan didn’t understand. Seulgi occasionally chimed in with, “We got this,” and “Winnable,” the younger two’s complaints seeming to brush off her without impact.

“We’re on the point, gogogo!” Yerim screamed, and Seungwan jumped, getting a double dose from the headphones and Yerim’s physical presence. “Two guys top left, point’s clear.”

“Yeri, get up top; Joy, Bear cover her from down here. I’ll scope the front—"

Seungwan kept her eyes on the screen— she almost understood Irene’s call outs. She watched as the team managed to do exactly what she said, seeing Yerim take out both guys on the balcony with support from Joy. After that, they moved forward as a team to clear out the corridor Irene had been scouting, taking out another person. After that, they hung out in the middle of the square in the room until “Objective Secured” appeared on the screen, eliciting whoops of victory from the gamers.

“You did it, right? That’s what that means?” Seungwan asked.

“We did. No deaths ezpz.”

“Don’t get cocky, Joy-ah,” the leader scolded them. “We just queued into quick play.”

“But Moooom, we have to show off to the new girl!”

“Do you even know how to play at all?” Seulgi asked.

“No clue,” Seungwan cheerfully admitted again.

“Then we have to teach you! How else will you ever play with us?”

Seungwan wasn’t sure about that one, but she enjoyed herself as the girls took turn explaining parts of the game and bickering amongst themselves, even Irene who had seemed so much more composed than the rest of the team. By the time the girls logged out of the game, Seungwan thought she understood the basics, at least, even if she wasn’t sure her hands were fast enough to play herself.

“It was a good night everyone,” Irene said. “But it was also just for fun, so review and get ready for our skirmish scheduled with Busan tomorrow.”

“It’s Busan,” Joy said dryly. “We wreck them every time.

“No one beats RV!” Yerim exclaimed.

“Only if we focus,” Irene scolded as Yerim just laughed.

“Why are you called RV?” Seungwan asked, once Yerim’s laughter died out. “Does it stand for something?”

Yerim looked over to Seungwan, her smile morphing into a guilty expression and Seungwan instantly knew she wasn’t going to like the answer to the question.

“Oh, unnie named us!” Seulgi was the one to answer. “She named us RV after her favorite band, Red Velvet!”

Seungwan gave Yerim the nastiest glare she could muster as Irene shrieked surprisingly high and Seulgi and Joy laughed at the older girl. Yerim only shrugged, giving Seungwan the most innocent smile she could muster while holding back her own laugh.

There was nothing Seungwan could do at this point. She just hoped Yerim was right and her Wendy and Seungwan personas were different enough to hide her from a fan. Did Yerim even understand how K-Pop fan culture worked? If Irene was a hardcore fan, it’d be a miracle if she didn’t recognize Seungwan’s voice.

“Seungwan-ssi? Did I scare you off?” Irene asked. Seungwan thought she could hear an edge of genuine worry in the question.

“Oh— n-no, I like Red Velvet too,” she grit out.

“Ah! What’s your favorite song?”

“Um...” God she’d been asked this a million times, but she’d never planned on answering it when she was pretending to not be herself. “Maybe... Body Talk?”

“Oooh, that’s a good one!” Irene had raised her voice a few times during the call, but minus her earlier shriek, it was the loudest she’d spoken all night. “I think my favorite is Candy!”

“Ah- th-that’s a pretty old one...” Seungwan wasn’t sure if her nerves or her happiness was winning out. Candy wasn’t a song many people remembered as it was a slower song on an earlier album. The sweet song about love had a special place in her heart.

“Stop being hipsters with all these B-sides,” Joy cut in. “What about Bad Boy? The classic.”

“That’s playing all the time on the radio nowadays. I like Rookie!”

“Was that what came on MelOn earlier, Yeri?”

“Don’t call me out like this!”

“I like Body Talk too, Seungwan!” Seulgi called out cheerfully.

“I like Body Talk more!” Irene shouted.

“We get it, we get it you big fangirl,” Joy snorted. “We know you love Wendy, and that’s why we let you name us a stupid name.”

“I think it’s a cool name, regardless.”

“Of course you do, Bear unnie.”

Seungwan sat in silence, stunned as the girls discussed her work without knowing she was right there. Yerim turned to give her a look, but Seungwan didn’t even notice. Finally, Yerim decided to take initiative, cutting through what had apparently become an unnie teasing session with Seulgi and Joy teaming up.

“And you have three posters of her!”

“She has seven albums! I didn’t even get them all—“

“Guys I think Seungwan unnie is gonna fall asleep in her chair. It’s time to call it quits for the night.”

“It was good to meet you!”

“Come back if our fangirl nerd unnie didn’t scare you away!”

“We’re all nerds, you dork!”

“Please come back and visit Seungwan-ssi!”

“It was good to meet you too,” Seungwan finally choked out. “Have a good night!”

With another chorus of goodbyes, everyone left the group chat, leaving Yerim and Seungwan alone to pull off their headphones.

Seungwan immediately rounded on Yerim. “And you didn’t tell me Irene-ssi was a Red Velvet fan because...?”

“Because you would freak out and overthink things,” Yerim said. “In voice chat, you’re just Seungwan unnie, my older cousin. And if she guesses otherwise, all we have to do is say she’s wrong. I do it all the time because she always texts me things like, ‘Yeri I went to Seoul this weekend and I think I saw Wendy!’ ‘Wendy was in the studio today! Did you see her on your way to school?’. Actually, I think she did see you once because she described the clothing you were wearing in a selfie you sent me…” Yerim paused at the unimpressed look Seungwan was giving her. “It’ll be fine, unnie. Especially if you never show up on stream.”

“Just don’t give anyone my number!”

Yerim rolled her eyes. “Unnieeee... I only did that the one time because she obviously wanted to ask you out!”

Seungwan ignored her. “For this stunt, you’re sleepin