Wendy’s honestly exhausted, but that doesn’t stop the smile on her face as she continues to prepare desserts. Well, this is what she wanted, Wendy thinks to herself as she scoops up ice cream. The drawbacks of not having your parents to financially support you would have to be the fact that she has to work a part time job to cover her expenses. Though, Wendy thinks that this isn’t so bad. She doesn’t hate her job, she gets some free desserts from it, and she gets a few minutes to talk to a certain goddess every week.

God, she’s whipped.

“Canada, get your together,” Yeri smirks mischievously. Wendy can already tell that Great Britain’s up to no good, “Goddess coming in five, four, three…”

“Kim Yerim!” Wendy panics, accidentally smashing the strawberry ice cream cone into Yeri’s face as she tries to get to the counter.

“UNNIE, WHAT THE —” 

Wendy ignores Yeri’s screeching and whips around to face—

“Tzuyu?”

“You look disappointed, unnie,” Tzuyu says blankly, “Are you not happy to see your favorite maknae?” There’s a pinch of hurt laced in the Taiwanese’s voice, and Wendy feels guilty immediately. The tall freshman has that effect on people, especially when she decides to use her adorable puppy eyes too.

Until Yeri barges into the conversation, dabbing a towel to her face.

“I said a goddess, not your goddess,” Yeri says and swats Wendy’s shoulder, “Also you told me that, I’m your favorite maknae,” Yeri huffs.

“Both of you are my favorites! And she’s not mine—”

“So I’m a goddess to you, Yerim-ah?” Tzuyu asks teasingly, cutting Wendy short. Wendy can see Yeri’s eyes roll to the back of her head.

“I’m not blind, duh,” Yeri says casually, but there’s a pink tint to her cheeks, “Unnie, you should probably settle the other orders. I’ll handle Taiwan,” Yeri pushes Wendy away towards the kitchen, cracking her knuckles as she faces the tall freshman.

“I understand if you have a crush on me,” Tzuyu teases, “I get that a lot, after all,” The Taiwanese flips her hair, trying to hold her laughter in. It’s something that the introverted girl wouldn’t do unless you’ve managed to gain her trust through food, or if you’ve had a deep conversation on cereal while smashed at three in the morning. Yeri’s part of the latter.

“Keep going, and I’ll tell Jisoo, Seulgi, and Wendy unnie that you’re dating Sana right now,” Tzuyu freezes at the mention of their unnies, and Yeri smirks victoriously, “Sana’s just sitting over there, don’t think I didn’t see you come in with her.”

“It isn’t a date,” Tzuyu counters, standing her ground. Yeri isn’t blind to Tzuyu’s red ears that stick out like a sore thumb, however.

“Suuuure it isn’t,” Yeri drawls, but briefly checks behind a flustered Tzuyu to check if she’s holding up what looks to be a nonexistent queue. Safe. “Nayeon unnie posting this picture of you four with the caption, ‘double date! <3’ definitely means it isn’t a date,” Yeri lifts her phone up, showing Nayeon’s latest instagram post.

Tzuyu bites her lip, “What do you want?”

“The tea, sis,” Yeri replies, “You say you don’t have any more english breakfast tea, but I know you’re hiding it in your room.”

“Fine,” Tzuyu concedes.

“I also want the actual tea. I didn’t think you’d be the type to date,” Yeri comments casually, dropping her act, “But what do you want to get? We’ve been chatting here for too long,” She asks, quickly getting ready to key in the Taiwanese’s order.

“And whose fault is that?” Tzuyu questions, but quickly places her order anyway.

“I’ll tell you everything if you give all of that for free,” Tzuyu points at her order.

“Deal,” Yeri says, too eager to realize that she’d just gotten the short end of the stick.

“Dammit!”

Wendy comes out of the kitchen, and quickly calls out the finished orders for the other staff to take and serve. From the corner of the Canadian’s eye, she can see Taiwan and Great Britain shaking hands.

A diplomatic treaty? Probably not likely with how much the two banter and bicker. Wendy isn’t so sure. She’ll have to ask one of them later.

Before she can even react, Wendy’s suddenly being pushed towards the front counter.

“Your goddess is here, third customer in the queue. You’re welcome. Don’t screw it up,” Yeri says in one breath, and harshly pats Wendy’s back. The latter tries to hold in her coughing fit, and deals with the first two customers until she’s faced with the university’s goddess, Irene Bae.

“Hey, welcome back! A milkshake, I’m guessing?” Wendy tries to feign confidence in her tone and sends what she hopes looks like a friendly smile. It doesn’t really work if your voice shakes.

Irene smiles a small yet graceful smile, and Wendy tries to engrave the image to memory.

“Yeah. But add a sundae and a waffle foldover to go with it.”

“Will that be all?”

“Yes. Thank you, Wendy-ah,” Irene says with that soft tone of hers and if Yeri didn’t suddenly shove her from behind, she might’ve offered to give everything for free.

It’s also Yeri’s literal push that causes Wendy’s life to end.

The little demon must’ve planned this, because the moment Irene leans forward is the exact time Yeri decides to push her. 

Irene’s face gets bigger and bigger,  as she surges forward from the impact and the next thing Wendy knows, something hard smacks into Wendy’s forehead.

Warmth envelopes the Canadian’s senses as she feels a warm sensation on her lips, leaving her frozen from the taste of artificial raspberry. Slowly, she gets addicted to the feeling and follows it, and the warmth greedily chases her back until she remembers where she is. When Wendy opens her eyes, she’s met with Irene’s equally shocked expression.

Gasps ring everywhere, and the whole dessert café falls silent.

Halfway into devouring cake, Nayeon drops her fork.

“What’s wrong?” Jeongyeon, her date, asks out of concern. She follows Nayeon’s line of sight, “Oh.”

“Since when were they—?” Sana manages to ask in a low voice despite her shock.

Tzuyu struggles to swallow the puff pastry in , her eyes widening at the scene of Wendy and Irene kissing, “I— I don’t know.”

Jeongyeon looks around the room, looking at everyone’s shocked expressions until she hears a loud thud. She quickly pieces things together when she no longer sees the girl at the counter.

“The girl manning the counter just fainted,” Jeongyeon says, not recognizing any of them since she attends a different university, and quickly stands trying to look over the crowd of people, concern all over her features despite not knowing them personally.

“Holy ,” Nayeon says, and quickly whips out her phone to send a text.

Tzuyu quickly shoots up from her seat and spots Yeri looking just as concerned.

“Move!” The tall freshman commands, parting the crowd like the red sea as she paces towards the counter.

From a distance, the trio watch as Yeri hurriedly apologizes to Irene. When Irene turns around, she practically freezes everyone with her glare alone, and that forces everyone’s attention away from what had transpired moments ago. That doesn’t stop the tall freshman as Tzuyu crouches down and picks up an unconscious Wendy. Effortlessly, she lifts the much smaller girl bridal style. Irene can only stare blankly at the sight while Yeri thanks the Taiwanese with a nod. Shortly after that, Irene is quickly dragged away to the back of the kitchen by a pale Yeri.

When Tzuyu arrives right in front of Sana’s table carrying the unconscious Canadian, she apologizes.

“I’m sorry to cut things short but, I have to take Wendy unnie home…” Tzuyu pauses, gauging Sana’s expression for a moment, “Is that okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Jeongyeon cuts in faster than Sana can respond, “I think she’ll be okay but maybe you’d want to take her to a clinic or something just to be sure,” Nayeon’s date suggests, and Tzuyu shifts her gaze back to Sana.

“Don’t worry about me,” Sana starts, a small smile on her lips, “It’s fine, really. I can order some more pastries to go and we can have some more later. I know how much you like your sweets. Unless you need some help, then I can come with you, ” The Japanese girl smiles sweetly. Tzuyu looks away and clears before replying.

“T-that won’t be necessary, unnie. Thank you,” Tzuyu all but sprints out the door.

When Tzuyu’s out of sight, Nayeon kicks Sana’s leg from under the table.

“Ow!” Sana yelps, “Nayeon, what the hell?”

“Marry her,” Nayeon and Jeongyeon both say, sending shivers down Sana’s spine with how in sync their actions are despite only having met in person today.

“But if you won’t, I will. She’s super cute!” Nayeon suddenly adds, smirking mischievously. Sana rolls her eyes.

“Not if I steal her first!” Jeongyeon says with a grin on her face. The couple stare each other down, before breaking into a fit of giggles.

They’re disgustingly cute, Sana concludes with a pout.

“...I’m useless,” Irene slumps into her arms, her face still red. Rosé’s too busy trying to figure out how to eat the monster of a dessert she asked Irene to order for her earlier, and Jennie’s just watching her amusedly.

“What’s new, unnie?” Jennie says, poking into her ice cream, moving slightly to block Irene’s view of Nayeon. The younger knows that Irene could die of a heart attack if she knew that Nayeon and Sana saw everything, “You’re just good at keeping it low key. You’ll never hear the end of it when Nayeon and Joy finally discover the truth.”

“Why do you think I’m talking to the both of you?” Irene says and huffs, “You’re not wrong, but I couldn’t even offer to help her...” Irene sighs, ruffling her hair. They took the booth furthest from all of the patrons to avoid drawing any more attention to themselves. The café may be off campus, but it’s close enough that a lot of their schoolmates frequent the quaint dessert café. Some even work part time.

Much like the object of Irene’s affections, who she just kissed purely by accident.

Or that’s what she thought until she finds the culprit crouched behind Wendy this whole time.

Her cousin: Kim Yerim.

Which is why everything she ordered earlier was fully refunded with Yeri looking as pale as a sheet of paper.

Irene swirls her milkshake, recalling Wendy’s taste on her lips. Her own still haven’t stopped tingling after that, even when Irene tries to down more of her drink to get rid of the feeling. Irene knows that Jennie’s already begun her monologue on why Irene should just be braver, and ask Wendy out since literally everyone on campus knows that Wendy likes her. She completely blocks out Jennie, however, and focuses on getting rid of the strange feeling by drinking even more of her much too sweet milkshake.

It only manages to freeze the taste of Wendy’s lips on her own.

When Wendy finally comes to, she’s met with a pair of obnoxious screaming. Her head hurts quite a bit, and the loudness really isn’t helping her.

“Cheater!” A voice booms. Wendy buries herself deeper into the soft sheets, trying to muffle the noise.
 

“What!? I won fair and square,” Another voice chimes in just as loudly, “You’re just a loser, Lalisa!”

“You wanna fight?!” The other voice shouts back, “Come at me bro!”

“What am I doing here?” Wendy finally decides to ask as she forces herself to sit up. She’s met with the sight of Lisa grabbing Jisoo by the neck, while Jisoo’s pulling on Lisa’s hair.

“Oh!” Lisa says suddenly, the two immediately letting go of each other, “You’re awake,” The Thai girl states the obvious. Jisoo rolls her eyes at that.

“Thanks, Thailand. We would have never known,” The Korean says sarcastically before turning to face Wendy with a serious expression, “You okay? Tzuyu brought you here earlier, but she had to leave for class. She said you suddenly collapsed at work,” Jisoo moves to hand Wendy a glass of water.

“I’m alright,” Wendy says and hands the glass back to Jisoo, who doesn’t look like she believes her. Wendy’s honestly thankful for her friend’s concern, but she has no idea how to explain the string of events that happened earlier that day.

“You can tell us anything, you know?” Jisoo says in that caring voice of hers. Although the situation isn’t as dramatic as Jisoo thinks, Wendy’s grateful to have someone like Jisoo around. She wouldn’t know how to deal with her problems or with the ‘kids’ as Jisoo would call the rest of their friends without the Korean around to help her, “Or me, at least. Lisa doesn’t know how to keep shut.”

“Hey!” Lisa grumpily says, and crosses her arms like a child.

Wendy rolls her eyes fondly. Leave it to Jisoo to be both incredibly mature and petty all at once.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Wendy begins, “Actually…” The Canadian retells the story of how she ended up kissing Irene Bae earlier that day.

When she finishes her story, both Lisa and Jisoo are laughing their asses off.

“And— and you just fainted!” Lisa wheezes, “You’re so useless!” Lisa almost falls off her seat as she laughs at Wendy.

“You literally have no right to be calling me a useless lesbian, Canada!” Jisoo guffaws, pushing Lisa off of her seat. The Thai girl falls to the ground with a loud thump, but doesn’t seem to mind it one bit.

“Hey, at least I kissed my crush!” Wendy tries to defend herself, “You’ve done literally nothing but stare at yours!”

“Yeri did that for you!” Jisoo shoots back, “And besides, I didn’t have an excuse to talk to her until I failed my English test! You literally have to talk to Irene every time she’s at the café!”

“But that’s at work!” Wendy says, exasperated. 

“It’s an opportunity!” Jisoo replies, “Come on, don’t waste it! Maybe Irene sunbae might’ve liked it? Or whatever, I dunno.” The Korean rambles.

“Whatever she may feel, you still have an opportunity to talk to her again. This time, even out of the café now that you’ve kissed her,” Jisoo continues.

“You’re right…” Wendy mumbles, already beginning to overthink about the prospect of talking to Irene again after all of that. 

“If that doesn’t work though,” Jisoo pipes up, disturbing Wendy’s thought process, “Just dab away the feelings.”

“Wait, what?” Wendy’s previous thoughts are thrown out of the window with how ridiculous Jisoo’s suggestion. If it’s the Korean’s intent to keep Wendy’s overthinking habits at bay, then it’s definitely working.

“Y’know,” Lisa gestures vaguely, “If you ask her out and she says no, dab away the feelings!” The Thai girl suddenly dabs, nearly hitting Jisoo square in the face.

“Why the heck would I do that?!” Wendy’s even more confused, “That’s ridiculous!”

“Sis,” Jisoo says in a serious tone, holding on to both of Wendy’s shoulders, “If you feel like crying, the dab hides everything! Just wear longer sleeves so you can wipe away the tears at the same time!” Jisoo advertises like a saleswoman.

“Isn’t dabbing great? You’ll look cool, and it’ll hide away the feelings!” Lisa continues, and Wendy wonders why she’s friends with these two idiots, “You can even do it multiple times like this to look even cooler!” Lisa adds and suddenly her face is a blur of hair and swinging arms as she dabs repeatedly.

“Wait, why would I be crying?!” Wendy asks, exasperated and a bit dizzy just watching Lisa dab like a madman.

“You’ve been pining for her for years, unnie. You even know that she knows that you like her, but she hasn’t done anything about it. At all.” Jisoo explains, “Then again, she stares at you sometimes. Maybe she’s just another useless lesbian in hiding,” Jisoo says thoughtfully, and Lisa almost falls to the ground, dizzy after dabbing so much.

“Then