Yena stared at the map, dumbfounded. How does one read a map again?

“Unnie, do you need help? You’ve been looking at that map for a long time now,” Yuri peeked over the duck’s shoulder and facepalmed.

“I know how to use this thing,” Yena waved her hand dismissively, “I just need to know where we’re going.”

The hamster sighed, “First of all, you’re holding it upside down. Second, you’re looking at the map of the forest and its trails instead of the training camp map.”

“Oh,” Yena coughed to cover her embarrassment. “I see.”

The older of the two corrected her hold on the paper and properly looked at the map. “Alright! Okay, so they have an animal pen here and that’s where we’re going.”

“So you finally figured it out? We’re the last ones in the dormitory, everyone’s left already,” Yuri walked to the door.

“I’m getting there, girlfriend, just wait,” Yena replied automatically, her eyes not leaving the map.

The main vocal froze in her tracks and gaped at the back of the older’s head. “Girl-girlfriend…?” Yuri whispered, confused.

“What was that?”

“N-nothing.”

“So let’s head out then!”

When they stepped out the front door of the building Yena pocketed the map and quickly walked to their destination. They walked side by side, talking about whatever came up in their minds, and greeting the occasional employee or instructor they meet along their way. At one point during their short journey, they met Chaewon and Hitomi.

They were just walking around and looking for any hidden things that aren’t marked on the map. Chaewon and Hitomi bid them adieu and strolled away. Yena took note of how their hands swayed near each other, and how their pinkies were trying to reach out and partially interlock hands.

“You saw their hands right?” Yuri pointed at them.

Yena nodded, “Yep, I bet that something is going on between them.”

“Their lips looked kinda red too.” The hamster tapped her chin, “You don’t think-”

“Nah, it must be lipstick Chaewon bought last week. Hitomi probably just asked if she could use it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, I think saw that same shade of red that she wore when we first got here.

A few conversations later, they have made it to the animal pen. They are quite unsure whether to call it that since the structure was more “zoo” than “pen”. Instead of having wooden fences, as pens usually have, the creatures were put in a giant chain-linked compound. It resembled a zoo more than a small confine that one would find on a farm. They arrived just in time to see Instructor M carrying a small bucket of seeds.

The foreign woman spotted them and waved, “Hello, little duck and tiny hamster. What brings you here?”

“We saw this place on the map and we thought it was interesting,” Yuri answered and then pretended to pet something invisible on her palm. “I wanna see some tiny little hamster or guinea pigs.”

Yena internally squealed at how the younger acted, “So cute,” she whispered.

Instructor M chuckled at the scene in front of her, “Yuri, has anyone told you that Yena looks like she wants to marry you?”

“What?” the IZ*ONE members said in unison.

Instructor M just kept on laughing.

Yuri sighed, “You’re just like the trainees from PD48.”

“Am I wrong though?”

“Okay!” Yena burst through the conversation before the older woman could continue her train of thought. “Time to see what’s inside the pen!” she grabbed Yuri’s wrist and rushed inside.

They could hear their instructor as they walked through the animal enclosures. Yena wanted to save both of them the embarrassment, and she definitely wanted to run away before Instructor M could plant a seed in Yuri’s mind. And God knows that Yena does not want that seed to grow before she was ready. The younger did not need to know the depths of her mind yet (but of course she was fine with making jokes about her “love” for her).

Eventually, they calmed to the point where they could discuss what animals they could visit first, that is, if you could call yelling and getting excited discussing. Yena was arguing about seeing the ducks before the hamster and Yuri wants to do the opposite, so basically they aren’t calm.

They happen to glance at a picture card in front of a habitat. On that laminated card was a list of words and pictures, and to their surprise, they saw the two animals they wanted to see the most.

“There are ducks in this enclosure!”

“Don’t forget the hamsters too!”

The duo quickly entered the space and made sure to close the gate behind them so the critters inside don’t escape. However, their excitement died out as quickly as it formed as the ducks and hamsters were not out and about yet. The older of the two made a sound that was between a sad quack and a humanoid keyboard smash noise, while the main vocal sang a high note filled with sorrow.

“I cannot believe this .”

“Unnie, language.”

“Sorry.”

They sat down on a fallen log and sighed, crestfallen and disappointed that their favorite animals aren’t out right now. They didn’t even have the energy to speak to each other because of this.

“Unnie stop touching my leg.”

“You stop doing that to me, I’m not doing anything.”

“If it’s not you, then who is it?”

“It’s probably that thing that’s quacking underneath us. Wait a sec ...”

The duo looked down at their feet and, to their surprise, found a cluster of ducks around Yena’s legs and a big group of hamsters loitering near Yuri’s legs. Naturally, they screamed out of cuteness, out of surprise, a