With back slumped on the chair and posture be damned, Chaeyoung absentmindedly twirls her phone in evident boredom. Yes or Yes promotions has already been concluded but of course, it’s not in Twice’s book when you don’t have another schedule waiting to happen. Chaeyoung sighs. Fortunately, today is just going to be another Pocari Sweat CF and so far, it seems that this commercial filming is not as hectic as the past ones they did given how she and her sisters are still lounging in the waiting room.

A snicker pulled Chaeyoung out of her trance, not even realizing she fell into one, and diverts her attention towards the source.

“Stupid fly, get off my pretty face.” Nayeon grunts, hand carelessly swatting away as her eyes are lidded shut.

Jeongyeon was snickering beside her, “Idiot.” She leans over, smirking, before she blows at Nayeon’s face again, laughing when the older girl unconsciously lets out an even louder whine.

Chaeyoung eyed them with amusement. It’s no secret that the two oldest members are constantly at each other’s throats, bickering when the have the chance. They don’t even care if they’re off-cam or not. She remembers that VLIVE she did with Jeongyeon awhile back when both of them still had their hairs short and Jeongyeon endlessly picking on Nayeon. 

The memory graced a smile on Chaeyoung’s face and her hand was back at twirling her phone again. It was really such a fun time. Before that, she was even showing some of the photos she developed to the fans. Chaeyoung likes taking photos and she believes that she even take good ones at that, modesty regarded of course. Too bad she doesn’t have a disposable camera with her now becau—

She stops twirling her phone. Her eyes then fell unto her hand.

Pabo, Chaeyoungie.

Without a second to waste, Chaeyoung jumps off her seat and prances around the room with the camera app now ready in hand, a newfound purpose driving her. Thankfully, the members are not minding her that much. She clicks her tongue in excitement, eyes scanning around the room for anything picture-worthy. Scattered equipments, countless cameras, bustling crew, eight lazy dorks, Pocari Sweat bo—

Chaeyoung stops, then smirked.

Eight lazy dorks it is.

Good thing her chosen subjects are preoccupied to whatever they’re doing because Chaeyoung is kind of feeling candid moments today, especially when it is as amusing as what is happening with Nayeon and Jeongyeon. She discreetly moves to a better position not far from the two women, careful not to disrupt the moment, before raising her phone up to take the picture.

Snap.

Jeongyeon has her features contorted in both pain and horror when Nayeon’s gigantic palm sticks up her face and shoved it away, clearly oblivious as she dozes off.

Chaeyoung snorts at the image, especially at Jeongyeon’s perfectly captured wide mouth. Can’t say Jeongyeon-unnie didn’t had it coming though.

Just then, a passing shadow startled Chaeyoung and she immediately turns around, only to sigh in relief when she realized it was just Tzuyu. Seriously, Tzuyu’s towering height can be jarring sometimes. Her eyes curiously trailed after the girl when she sees the maknae bypassing her seat and made her way to a sleeping Sana instead. Intrigued, Chaeyoung shuffled closer to get a better earshot.

“Sana-unnie.” Tzuyu whispers softly, patting the older girl’s cheek.

“Hmmm,” replied the Japanese, clearly not budging to open her eyes but it was obvious that she was leaning in to the younger girl’s touch.

Tzuyu tried again. “Sana-unnie, wake up. Manager-oppa wants to talk to you.”
 
“Five more minutes...”

The maknae sighed, though there’s a slight quirk of her lips. Tzuyu shifts closer. “I know you’re awake, don’t be a pain in the now.”

“But Chewy-ah.”

“No but’s. Now come o—“ Tzuyu let out a yelp when Sana suddenly pulled her by the wrist and almost knocked their foreheads at each other had it not for Tzuyu’s quick reflexes. The younger girl was obviously about to go off at the clumsy squirrel when Sana slowly opened her eyes and cracked a smirk.

“What did you say Chewy-ah? No butts?”

Chaeyoung fumbles with her phone and immediately took a picture.

Snap.

There were no traces of sleep or whatsoever in Sana’s eyes when she held Tzuyu down by her wrist while the younger girl still has her hand plastered on the former’s cheek. Instead, those cunning eyes were rather twinkling with mischief (and something more?) as she stares a flustered Tzuyu down with a smirk, their faces merely inches a part that Chaeyoung was forced to look away seeing it only gets more intimate the longer she stares.

She’s still going to develop those though.

Moving on.

Snap.

No wonder fans call Jihyo GodJihyo because even in candid, the leader looks breathtaking with her superior aura. Her attention is directed towards her phone and the light from the screen casts a luminous effect on the leader’s focused frown, creating an ethereal vibe that reminds Chaeyoung of Athena. Sometimes, Chaeyoung really wonders how Jihyo is not the oldest among them (even Nayeon agrees).

In the corner of her eyes, she sees Tzuyu retreating back to her chair but not without begrudgingly moving it in a safe distance away from Sana, pink stains obviously dusting her cheeks. The older girl doesn’t seem to be affected by Tzuyu’s hostile behavior though. If anything, Sana looks rather victorious as she plays with her phone.

Chaeyoung chuckles. Seriously, what’s up with those two?

Shaking her head, she proceeds to take more pictures.

Snap.

Her phone almost dropped from her hands when she opened the recent photo up. Dahyun is already staring straight at the camera, her trademark smile mocking Chaeyoung’s ability to be discreet. The short haired girl looked up from her phone and threw a glare at Dahyun to which the latter just responded with a bop of her eyebrows and a teasing laugh.

Really, no one can ever steal a shot from Dahyun. Not even them.

Anyway, snap.

Chaeyoung smiles. In this one, Momo has her eyes nervously screwed shut as she waits for Mina’s hand to flick her forehead. The two Japanese members were playing rock-paper-scissors and apparently, Momo lost a round and would be paying the price. After all, Mina rarely loses a game and it clearly shows she knows it herself based from how she is brightly smiling her gummy grin. Chaeyoung found herself staring.

“Pst.”

The strawberry princess snaps out of it and looks up, frowning when she finds Dahyun smirking at her.

What are you staring at? Dahyun mouthed teasingly.

Chaeyoung groaned and decided to not mind Dahyun, earnestly ignoring the warmth creeping up to her cheeks. She moves away from her current position until she stationed herself in front of all of them. Still, Chaeyoung wants to keep it candid but with the way she exposed herself with the phone directed at them, she wouldn’t be surprised if some of the members would look back and even strike a pose.

Chaeyoung smiles. Oh well, candid or not, every photo of these eight girls is always as significant.

“Hana, dul, set.” she whispers to herself.

Snap.

Snap.

And snap.

Satisfied, Chaeyoung plopped down on the floor with an excited smile and opens up her photos, her dimple popping out when she finally takes a good look on the pictures she captured. Nayeon is still sleeping, Sana is busy with her phone, and Tzuyu looks as though she’s in a happy daze. Chaeyoung snickered. At the back, Jeongyeon was captured laughing while Jihyo looked rather taken aback. It was only Momo, Mina and Dahyun who noticed her as they individually a pose.

The next ones she took doesn’t have Dahyun in it anymore since their manager called for her. However, some people really love to contest Dahyun for being the dorkiest member. Jeongyeon continues to prove that she was an ostrich in her previous life seeing how she cranes her neck like one. On the other hand, Momo flaunts Sana and Mina to the camera with a smug smile and only Mina looked like the normal one with her cute peace-sign. 

Oh this one’s cute. Chaeyoung mused with a soft smile, her gaze locked at Jeongyeon’s hearty laugh. Her eyes then trailed across the screen and cooed when she sees Momo’s small pout, the way she pulls her hair up only made her look more of a child. Jihyo is still on her phone as well as Sana but the latter looks more engrossed with obvious interest (Chaeyoung is sure the older member is stalking girls again) and Mina—

Oh.

Oh.

“Darn it, Minari.” Chaeyoung hissed under her breath, the warmth returning back to her cheeks.

In the last one she took, Mina is teasingly biting her finger as she stares at the camera with a seductive smile, head tilted to the side. If it’s anyone, they would take Mina’s pose as something playful but, as much as she’s terrified to admit it, Chaeyoung knows better. With the fact that she was the one who’s handling the camera, Chaeyoung knows Mina is not playing.

How dare her. She can’t stare at the camera like this. She can’t stare at her like this. Chaeyoung bites the inside of her cheek, feeling the warmth growing and growing as she can’t take her eyes off the picture.

Off at Mina.

A velvety cough resounded across the busy room and Chaeyoung dreads how she exactly knows who it belonged.

Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t—

Chaeyoung peeked up, instantly regretting it.

Mina was staring at her with a knowing smirk, the smugness telling her as though she knows what made Chaeyoung so flustered. Maybe she does. Slowly, Mina stood up, and started to walk towards Chaeyoung’s direction. The strawberry princess quickly panicked, her heart hammering like crazy against her ribcage.

—

“Chaeyoungie.” Mina greets with an innocent smile, the seductress of an aura already been thrown out of the window.

Bullcrap.

“Minar—Mina-unnie, hey,” Chaeyoung was glad she was quick on that correction, “what brings you here?”

Hands clasped behind her back, Mina continues to tower over Chaeyoung seeing as she makes no signs of sitting down. “Hi. Nothing really, just coming over.”

“Oh. I see. Well, do you wanna sit down with me?” Chaeyoung patted the space beside her, “Don’t worry, it’s not that dusty.”

Mina’s laugh chimed repeatedly in Chaeyoung’s ears.

“Silly, of course I don’t mind the dust. Actually, I was going to ask you if you want to check the snack bar over there?” The Japanese woman turns around and points to a table near the door, “I’m sure the shoot won’t be in a while.”

Chaeyoung agrees. The room does look busy, but not as busy enough like it usually is whenever a shoot is about to start. “Sure. Let’s go.”

Before she can push herself off the floor, a hand sticks up just slightly above her view and Chaeyoung was forced to look up. Mina is stretching out her palm with such softness in her eyes. Chaeyoung sighs, grabbing the offered hand and pulled herself up. It’s unfair how this girl can make her heart flutter so easily.

“So, what do you wanna get?” She causally asks, walking beside Mina as they make their way towards the snack bar.

Mina shrugged, “I don’t know yet,” Chaeyoung flinches and burned crimson red when Mina’s arms nonchalantly s around her waist, “I guess chocolates would do for now. I don’t want to get too full, the girls did promise to have dinner outside. Promotions had been tough anyway.”

“Y-yeah, it was.”

Whatever Mina is playing, Chaeyoung does not like it one bit; especially right now when she’s leaning dangerously close to the side of her head and the scent of lavender evading her senses, numbing what’s left of Chaeyoung’s functioning circuits.

“Can I ask you something, Chaengie?” Mina’s voice came out huskier than usual.

“What is it?” Thank the heavens her voice didn’t crack.

They finally stopped in front of the table with different foods laid out completely for them to pick, but both girls know that that kind of concern is completely forgotten now.

Mina turns around to face Chaeyoung and Chaeyoung slowly, bravely looks back, marvelling how she still has some bit of confidence left in her (not that much though since she’s sure she looks like a shivering cub). Mina smiles, and Chaeyoung felt herself staring again.

“Snap out of it. Looking terrified doesn’t suit you.” Mina jokes.

“Terri—hey, who are you calling terrified.” Somehow, the accusation felt stingy to Chaeyoung that she manages to let out an earnest huff, but it only causes the Japanese woman to giggle.

“That’s more like it, ‘cause I need a straight answer if I ask what were you gaping at earlier.”

Chaeyoung’s resolve dropped. “G-gaping? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“On your phone. Earlier. When you were sitting alone on the floor.”

“I wasn’t gaping.”

“You were staring at me, weren’t you?”

Chaeyoung furiously blushed and took a step back. “Y-yah! I wasn’t, I was reading some Webtoon a-and—and—the art style was amazing! Yes, it was too amazing it left me gaping. I mean no, not that I was gaping!”

Mina laughs unreservedly, her gums showing out yet again. She doesn’t say it often but being with Chaeyoung is like breathing fresh air, a comforting sense that she will always, always seek out. Also, teasing the younger girl is one of Mina’s favorite hobbies, and the fact that Chaeyoung is easily flustered because of her did things to Mina inside.

“Chaeng, you don’t have to lie,” without warning, Mina moves behind Chaeyoung and fully wrapped her arms around the younger girl’s waist, head propped on her shoulder as the tip of her nose brushed against the younger’s jaw. She secretly smirks when she felt the Chaeyoung stiffen under her touch, “it only makes you cuter.”

Chaeyoung feels like she’s about to combust. However, her brows furrowed together. Damnit, if this is how you wanna play then fine.

“Saying the truth isn’t always easy you know, especially when I find a certain penguin ridiculously gorgeous earlier.” Chaeyoung retorts back, unwavering.

Mina pauses, before she drawls a hum composedly. She only hopes Chaeyoung doesn’t hear the massive beating of her heart. “I’m glad you think that way. Now put up your phone up.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Let’s take a selca.”

Chaeyoung confusedly glances at her. “Right now?”

Mina rolls her eyes before poking the younger girl’s waist. “Hurry!” 

Chaeyoung jerks back with a squeak. “Y-yah okay, okay! Just don’t do that again, geez.”

She half-heartedly rolled her eyes when Mina giggled, nonetheless putting up her phone and adjusted it to front cam. Her lips quirked upwards when her screen finally displayed both of them, silently gushing at how they look cute together. At least the lighting is not that bad, Chaeyoung thought.

Snap.

In the last photo she took on that day, Chaeyoung had her eyes widened in shock as Mina presses her lips gingerly against the younger girl’s cheek, eyes closed and mouth smiling.

She’s going to keep this one to herself.