The sun-kissed snow seems so nostalgic to her; the glimmering golden lights softening the blankets of frozen snow like sugar cubes slowly melting in hot tea gave her this feeling of calm warmth. She cradles her mug, bringing it up to her lips to take a sip of her warm tea. There’s a feeling of coziness that it brings to her, she can’t help but smile. A warm pair of arms circle around her shoulders from behind, Minnie snuggles into a comfortable familiar embrace. She sets her teacup down and holds those soft sleeved arms in place.

“Hmmm,” a loving voice says in a hushed tone, “you look so comfortable like you’re about to sleep.”

“Is that a bad thing,” Minnie asks, “or do you just want my attention?”

“And if I do?” the older girl leans into her ear and whispers.

Minnie feels her cheeks flush pink and turns to face her beloved. She cups her cheeks with both hands and stares deep into her brown eyes. It was neither captivation or a rush of emotions that she felt, but a soft feeling of nice warm peace. She felt so safe in her arms. She doesn’t know how this came to be, but she’s glad things turned out the way it did. It’s a blessing really, how relieved Minnie is when Miyeon is with her—how her presence makes her so wonderfully soothed and at home. She glanced around to make sure no one else is with them before she grins and plants a gentle kiss on her girlfriend’s rosy cheeks.

“Then I’d gladly give it you, all my love and my affection,” the taller girl promises her, “Until you’ve had enough.”

“You know I never will,” Miyeon assures her, hugging her a bit tighter.

“I know,” Minnie says, “Won’t you join me on the sofa?”

It’s silent for a bit until Miyeon moves her arms and Minnie whines. The Korean girl gleefully laughs at her girlfriend, watching her pout and sulk. She then decides to hop over the back of the couch and jump onto the cushion next to her without a warning.

Minnie yelps in surprise, “Miyeonnieee, why’d you do that!”

With a foolish and sloppy grin on her face, the older girl shrugs and tries to take the other girl in a warm embrace once more. As she reaches out to cuddle up with her lover, she is shocked when she only manages to capture a whiff of cold air. Minnie had stood up from her comfortable spot on the couch and promptly turned away from Miyeon. She began walking away in soft stomps, somewhat upset.

“Minnie, come on!” Miyeon calls as she grabs her wrist and gets her turn around.

Minnie pouts and slides her wrist out of her hold, continuing to stomp away. Miyeon quickly tries to follow her and after a few minutes of trying to catch her, she corners the taller girl. Like really Miyeon, quite literally, has Minnie backed up into the corner of the living room. 

“I’m so sorry Minnie,” Miyeon begs leaning in to pepper her silky girlfriend with kisses, “forgive me?”

“No!” Minnie whines although she also can’t help but giggle at the same time.

“Pretty please!” She pleads with wide puppy eyes.

Minnie raises her eyebrows and creases form on the top of her forehead, how was she supposed to refuse a look like that? She laughs and gives in. Slipping their hands together, she lets Miyeon kiss her so tenderly on her forehead, nose, and cheeks. Their foreheads touch ever so slightly and they pause for a second, staring into each other’s eyes. They feel their hot breaths on each other's skin.

A golden glow shines through the clear glass window and leaves a pretty gleam of light illuminating over their figures. Their still shadows at that moment looked as though an image of lovers had jumped out of a grainy black and white vintage photo. There was this feeling of timeless they seemed to exude, a stagnant and ever-changing forever: love.

Miyeon gently placed one of her hands on Minnie’s supple cheeks and gently molds their lips together. She lightly on the top of her lips, slightly parting them before gradually becoming more passionate. Minnie lets out soft whimpers and clutched tightly onto the sleeves of her red knit sweater. The younger girl melts into her girlfriend’s touch, clinging to her with ardent love. Soon though, they part, out of breath with swollen lips and messy hair.

Caressing her face, Miyeon tells her, “Sometimes I wonder how am I so lucky.”

“Why do you say that?” Minnie inquires with a smug look on her face.

“Well, I was thinking about how I didn’t mean to fall in love with you but didn’t mean not to if you know what I mean,” Miyeon confesses with a slight hue of pink starting to creep up her face.

“Hmm, I think I know what you mean,” the taller girl hums, “Us falling in love wasn’t obvious when we first met, it wasn’t surprising when it happened either. There was just a moment where we found ourselves always gravitating to each other, like the moon to the earth. It was a natural and mutual realization of ‘oh, I like to be around this person’.”

“Exactly, I feel so much better when I’m with you,” Miyeon chimes in and hugs her girlfriend, “oh, I love you!”

“I love you too,” she responds with her signature oh so sweetening eye smile, “soooo much.”

There’s something stuck in Miyeon’s throat though that’s she’s been meaning to talk about for a while. She’s hesitant, nervous to bring it up because she doesn’t know what the other will think. Although she knows that she’ll listen to her and love her no less, she’s still worried that it might pressure the other girl slightly.

“Hey, do you think we should tell them about us?”

Then they hear a sudden scuffle against the wooden floors and wince, jumping apart from one another and bringing their phones to their hands. As if they had been sitting in mutual silence, the two of them mindlessly open internet tabs and begin to scroll. It feels a bit awkward in these instances where they have to pretend, but they don’t dare to even take a glance at one another.

“Hey guys, ah I see that you guys aren’t doing anything important,” Shuhua pops out of nowhere and sarcastically exclaims, “regardless, I hope I’m not interrupting you guys. Miyeon, you wouldn’t mind if I borrowed Minnie for a second, Soojin needs help in the kitchen.”

“Sure, wait hey, why isn’t Soojin asking for my help,” Miyeon forces a smile on and almost reluctantly complies. Her girlfriend laughs as the youngest gives her a strange look.

“Because you at cooking,” Shuhua promptly responds in a matter-of-fact tone.

Miyeon frowns and retorts, “You’re not too good either.”

“Because Jinjin likes having me be there and I’m good support. I wouldn’t know what Minnie would say about you though,” the girl responds, sticking her tongue out. Miyeon stands straight up and looks like she’s about to start an uproar.

“We’re not even a thing!” Miyeon yells and Shuhua just rolls her eyes.

Minnie just watches although her by the previous comment, she’s rather amused with the two throwing quips at each other. Staying there for a bit longer, she observes the two continue their bickering. She thinks her beloved is cute when she gets mad and likes how she’s always so expressive of her emotions. Nevertheless, she leaves the Tom and Jerry-like duo and their playful banter to join her calm friend in the kitchen.

“Soojin,” she calls out in a hushed tone, careful to not startle her friend in the midst of cooking, “Shuhua, said that you needed some help in the kitchen.”

“Ah, hey Minnie,” she says in a soft-spoken voice as she uses her chopsticks to mix the ingredients of her stir-fry dish, “Yeah, could you help me wash some vegetables and chop them up?”

“Sure,” Minnie assures and starts to pull portions of the greenery apart and run the underwater all while rubbing the dirt of some places, “I can see why you didn’t get Soyeon to help, she would’ve hated to even touch these vegetables.”

“She sure would have,” Soojin agrees as she starts adding spices to a large bowl, “But I would’ve asked her to help with other stuff.” 

“Hmm, why didn’t you?” the older girl hums and starts to align the pieces of greenery on the cutting board after flicking some water off of them, “Is it because Soojinie wanted to hang out with me more!”

The usually relatively quiet and collected girl giggles, momentarily pausing before checking the temperature of the stove and all the food, “You know I can’t answer that and didn’t you flirt enough with Miyeon today? I’d imagine her being jealous, I can’t believe the two of you aren’t dating yet.”

“Shush, that’s beside the point though, why isn’t Soyeon helping with making lunch today?” Minnie quickly diverts the attention, smoothly sweeping her comment on her love life under the rug. She continues to carefully chop vegetables, but if people were to listen closely enough they would hear the chops grow louder with the increasing force she put on the knife after the other girl’s content.

“I did try to ask her,” Soojin responds in a playful tone with a slight smirk on her face, “It’s just that the look on Yuqi’s face was so funny that I burst out laughing and had to excuse myself. She wouldn’t stop glaring at me from the moment I stepped into Soyeon’s room.”

Minnie puts down the knife after she finished chopping the last of the vegetables and lets a roaring laugh rip out of . Just then, as if on cue, a very chipper Yuqi appears with one arm over a seemingly exhausted leader’s shoulder. Soyeon’s hair appears to be slightly ruffled and seems to be in a rather dreary mood overall while the younger of the two is up in spirits higher than Mount Everest. Soojin appears to take a single glance at them at chuckle before she proceeds on with whatever dish she was making.

Curious, Minnie stares at the couple that just entered the room, she wants to ask what happened. Yet, she hesitates and wonders if Soyeon and Yuqi are going to get in a fight about how Soyeon keeps working. If that’s the cause then does she even want to know, is it worth asking for? As the saying goes, curiosity kills the cat. But, if she goes by Schrodinger’s cat problem she’ll never know until she asks and gets a for sure answer. Oh whatever, the girl thinks to herself, a cat has nine lives anyway. 

“So what have you two been up to?”

Soyeon wrinkles her nose and frowns, “I was working on a new song until this one interrupted.” She points an accusing finger at the high-spirited girl.

“Sometimes you have to relax,” the smiley girl simply responds, “Plus, aren’t you glad that you spent some quality time playing video games with me.”

The leader shrugs and Yuqi is quick to pout, which is one of their charismatic leader’s biggest weaknesses although she never seems to admit it. She tries to counsel the younger girl, but to no avail as the younger girl refuses to look at her.

Minnie sighs and notes, “Yuqi, if you keep frowning like that, you’re going to get wrinkles!”

“I don’t like you!” Yuqi simply yells back at her before continuing to try and avoid Soyeon’s apologies.

Just as Minnie is going to respond she feels a familiar weight rest on her shoulder telling her in a small whisper a little secret, “But I do.” The weight shifts away and she is faced with trying to hide a blush on her face. She wonders how someone so shy could also be so coy at times. Two can play the game though.

“Since when did you get here?” Minnie leans in and hugs her with one arm, purposefully slipping her hand down from her shoulders to her lower back. This sends a shiver down Miyeon’s spine and she unconsciously bites her lower lip. She lets her gaze linger slightly below Minnie’s eyes before moving away to sit down at the dining table.

The two stay strangely quiet as their other bandmates participate in boisterous chatter all over the kitchen. Miyeon helps the girls set up the table with plates, bowls, and utensils as Minnie helps Soojin bring the dishes she just finished cooking. Soyeon takes a quick look at the two of them, noticing that something is strange, but she chooses to push it aside and start eating the lovely lunch Soojin prepared. Everything seems to carry on as normal during their meal; Shuhua fawning over an extremely calm and patient Soojin, Yuqi trying to get Soyeon to catch a hint, and Miyeon playing footsies with Minnie under the table. All seemed to be going well until after they’ve all finished eating. When the other girls are cleaning up the table, Minnie feels her girlfriend touch her shoulder. 

“Can we talk about earlier?”

“The thing we were going to discuss before Shuhua came in?” Minnie murmurs, glancing at the rest of their teammates to make sure they were out of earshot distance.

“Yeah, I’ll meet you in your room in a few minutes,” Miyeon nods.

Minnie gives her a look of reassurance and announces that she’ll be going into her room to work on some new song lyrics. When she reaches her room and shuts the door she lets out a deep breath. Truthfully, she’s also been tired of their little rouse and wishes that they didn’t have to plan their hidden rendezvouses. She just didn’t know how to tell the other girls, like how where they supposed to lay it all out? Before she dwells on the issue at hand too long though, Miyeon slips into her room. She gives her a knowing look as she closes the door with a soft click.

She takes a seat next to Minnie on the bed and it’s a little awkward. It hasn’t been like that since they both knew that they liked each other but were also both too nervous to admit it. It sure does seem like they end up in these situations all too often; well, that is the fault of being cowards who live with their hearts on their sleeves.

“Hey,” Miyeon softly says.

Her girlfriend gives her a weak smile and asks, “Hey... do you think they know?”

“I think we both know the answer to that.”

“I know,” Minnie says, “But how are we supposed to tell them, it’s been so long and I don’t want them to think that we don’t trust them.”

Miyeon leans on her shoulder, “We just tell them the truth.”

“Like ‘hey, we’ve been dating for the past half a year, pretty sure you’ve all noticed, surprise’ truth?” Minnie says.

“Maybe not so much like that, let’s slow down a little,” Miyeon cooes, “We can tell them how we weren’t all so sure at first—how hesitant and afraid we were and that we wanted to be sure so we didn’t confuse anyone in the process.”

Minnie starts to relax brings Miyeon’s warm hands to hers, playing with her fingers as she calms down from her anxiety.

“Keep going.”

“And how it just became part of our routine because we always get so busy and caught up in those endless schedules that we never got the chance to tell them. But we knew that they knew anyway. Quite frankly we’re thankful in how patient and accommodating they’ve been with our choice to keep it on the down-low,” Miyeon soothes.

Minnie closes her eyes then and rests her head against Miyeon’s. Like she’s said time and time again, her girlfriend's presence always makes her feel so free and at peace.

“You know Cho Miyeon, sometimes you can be a real tease and goofball but you’re a reliable idiot you know?”

“I could say the same to you. Sometimes I wonder how you get all that energy, how you’re always so happy and excited but I really do love that about you.”

“Shut up,” Minnie playfully utters, “I could seriously kiss you again right now!”

“I dare you to,” Miyeon wittily remarks, lifting her head up from her shoulder and bringing their foreheads together.

And so she does, Minnie can feel the grin on her face as they kiss this time and she loves it. Moments like this, she wants to capture in her heart because they’re so precious. To be at peace and have someone love her to the next galaxy and back, who would’ve thought that it would happen so early in her life? She’s grateful.

The door creams open and just like that, the moment is shattered.

“Hey Minnie, have you seen where I put my emergency cat food,” Shuhua walks in haphazardly, “I saw a few stray cats around here early that I want to feed and—wow… WOAH, YO GUYS!”

“WHAT IS IT?” Yuqi banshee screams across their dorm.

Shuhua pops her head back out of the second eldest’s room and yells, “You owe me Ma La Tang, I was right! They are definitely already dating!”

“Excuse me!?” Yuqi yells back as rapid stomps could be heard in a crescendo.

“I can feel the impending doom,” Minnie mutters as she hides her red face in the crook of Miyeon’s warm neck.

“Same,” the other girl whispers in horror. 

And so their downfall comes when the second youngest walks in and starts squealing, jumping up and down. The two start their screaming match of ‘I told you so’s and almost looked like the Spider-Man meme where they were pointing at each other. It takes a few moments before the leader and the ever so calm and saint-like friend to come over to sort out all the fuss of this fiasco. Soyeon merely widens her eyes and Soojin shrugs like she knew this would happen a long time ago. Soojin merely touches Shuhua’s shoulder to get her to calm down and Soyeon gives Yuqi a stern look to stop her antics.

“Well, what do you guys have to say?” Soyeon asks, with an expectant audience behind her.

“Uh we’ve been dating for half a year and you guys probably all knew,” Miyeon murmurs.

And to put the cherry on top of that confession, Minnie looks at everyone with her hands out and adds a single word, “Surprise?”

Soyeon merely responds with a facepalm while Soojin chuckles and the youngsters of the group look at them as if they anticipate more of a speech. With the pressure on them, Minnie can’t help but continue, “We didn’t mean to hide it from you guys.”

“We just wanted to be sure before we told you guys and then we never found the right time,” Miyeon confirms.

Silence ensues and it feels a bit stifling with the rest of the group staring at the couple with blank stares. Minnie squeezes Miyeon’s hands just a bit tighter and she begins to hear the beat of her heart thumping hard against her chest. Everything is still in that instance, with silver light shimmering into the room in random patterns. It feels like that moment will never end until something quite unexpected interrupts them.

“Meow?” 

A meek voice squeak, startling almost everyone in the room. 

Yuqi turns to Shuhua and questions, “Shuhua, what the heck?”

“What? It wasn’t me I swear,” she exclaims with wide eyes, “I’m just as confused as you are!”

Then a chorus of meows and cats squeaking began, bewildering the group even more.

“So what was that?” asks Soojin, the only member who seems rather unbothered.

Soyeon rubs her chin and moves to the window. She takes a look down and there it is, outside was a bag of cat food burst open with a tiny cat poking its head out and several other cats lingering by. Sure enough, now they know where Shuhuas bag of cat food went; she really needs to stop losing things, but at least it’s not going to waste. When the rest of the members find out, they share a good laugh.

“The cat is really out of the bag today huh,” Miyeon mutters.

“Sure is,” Minnie agrees.

“Yup,” the other members say in unison, hovering over the window—trying to take photos.

They seemed to be more concerned about the cats gathering around and the newly revealed couple were quite understanding of that. It seemed to them that their relationship was a nonissue to their friends and they were glad to know that nothing would probably change between the six of them.

Miyeon makes sure that everyone is too occupied with the cats before she casually slinks to Minnie and whispers, “Do you think this calls for a celebration tonight.”

Minnie looks at her with initial disgust and is about to slap her shoulder for that until she sees the slightly darker look in Miyeon’s eyes. She gulps. 

“It’s a good thing that cats have nine lives,” she mumbled to herself.

Fin.

Hope y’all enjoyed, legit haven’t written creatively in forever so I hope this wasn't too bad.