This was a mistake. A huge mistake. For years Yongsun had pushed down these feelings, had sat by as Byulyi slowly but surely made her way through boyfriends(and eventually, girlfriends) and swallowed her pride and jealousy only to let her walls crumble down.

The offer was simple enough. Pair up with Byulyi on some YouTube channel and pretend to be a couple with other couples, only they didn’t know they weren’t a couple. There would be 7 pairs, 6 were real couples and 1 was a fake couple. Byulyi had told her that she immediately thought of them when she saw the offer, after all so many people had mistaken them for a couple, even their own parents at one point or another. Anyways— it would earn them a bit of money and perhaps boost Yongsun’s small but steadily growing YouTube channel, and she couldn’t simply turn down an opportunity like that.

To her surprise, they had made the cut. As the shoot date grew closer, Yongsun was a mess, reconsidering even saying yes to this stupid thing. She just couldn’t say no to Byulyi and that smiling face of hers. Even if Yongsun knew they were both horrible at lying, this was going to still be “fun”, as Byulyi put it.

To help sell the role, Byulyi suggested that they should go shopping for a couple’s outfit to wear. Yongsun argued it would seem forced and that the other couples would probably try to do it; besides they already had matching phone cases and bracelets, which seemed way more committing and proving of a relationship than some outfit was. Yet, the taller girl didn’t change her opinion. 

“Unnie look! Matching skirts with the same pattern and inverted colors.” Byulyi’s face lit up, and Yongsun silently cursed. It had been getting harder and harder to pretend she didn’t have feelings for Byulyi, not since this had started. 

Her crush was small in the beginning, they had met in college as roommates and despised each other. They had the same music major, as well as a few classes together, and despite the constant fighting, they grew close.

 Yongsun had known she was gay— ever since one year on pepero day when a boy asked to play with her and she complied, only for him to steal her first kiss and for her to have s sick feeling in her stomach for the rest of the week. She wasn’t ready to tell anyone for a long time, not even herself. 

Byulyi had been in the dorm one day, crying quietly when Yongsun entered after studying in the library with one of her friends. Upon asking her what was wrong, Byulyi simply muttered one phrase.

“I think I’m biual.” 

She wanted to cheer, for some reason. She didn’t even know why she was wishing for Byulyi to like women. Maybe it was her way of dressing or her sparkly eyes, or her triangle mouth with those pillowy lips that made her inclined to believe so— but she didn’t even have a crush on her. Still, Yongsun immediately rushed to her side, and comforted her. And a few weeks later, she herself worked up the courage to come out to her as well.

Even when she did eventually realize what that sinking feeling was whenever Byulyi told her she had a date, it wasn’t like she was going to admit it.

“What about these shirts? They look similar to be matching but aren’t exactly the same.” Byulyi suggested, snapping Yongsun out of her thoughts. 

The shirts in question were cute, however Yongsun just wasn’t buying the whole couple outfit idea. “Please, Byulyi, I just think couple outfits are a dead giveaway.”

“What? But I had matching outfits with Yooa, remember her? Oh and Yunho, though he was a pretty weird guy— anyways my point stands.”

“We have matching phone cases and bracelets, I think we should play up our “chemistry” as people call it. Maybe that would be a better idea.”

Sighing, Byulyi knew Yongsun was right. “Fine. I just wanted to be cute with my unnie is all.” She puffed her cheeks before letting out an exaggerated sigh and pout, pinching Yongsun’s cheeks before placing the clothes b