“Breathe,” Joy said, slapping Seulgi’s back, “breathe.”

“Cheesus Crust,” Seulgi choked out, her eyes red from not being able to expel or intake air. “Did--did you see it?”

“Of course I saw, you gomdol,” Joy said with an eye roll. “It’s purple in a country of green and brown.”

Seulgi only wheezed in response. Joy slapped her back again.

“It is nothing short of a Christmas miracle that you’ve ever managed to have a girlfriend before, since you seem completely unable to function in front of pretty women,” Joy said.

Seulgi wheezed again, her hardware having to reboot and enter safe mode and you can insert more nerdy computer analogies here .

“Wait a minute,” Joy said to herself more than the other woman, “you can function in front of me perfectly fine, so does that mean you don’t think I’m pretty?”

She gave Seulgi a frowny pout, who in turn gave a wave that said, ‘I’ll tell you in a bit, once I can breathe again.’

“Oh!” Joy squealed suddenly, “when we first met for the interview you barely said two sentences. I just thought you were super stern, but you were flustered, weren’t you?” 

She turned back to her boss. Seulgi nodded slightly.

“Yes,” Joy clapped her hands. “Okay, that’s fine, I was a little worried for a bit. I was called ‘y Dynamite’ in high school you know?” She looked at the other woman to make sure she did know. “In college too,” she added.

“y Dynamite sounds like a new shrimp special at Red Lobster, if you ask me,” Yeri quipped as she entered the tent.

“No one asked you, Gollum,” Joy said as she stuck her tongue out.

“You’re making enough noise for literally the whole compound to hear you, so I’d argue that yes, you are asking me,” Yeri said smugly.

“Aish, knock it off you two,” Seulgi said a little distractedly. She had regained her composure and was looking for a rag.

“Good grief,” Yeri said, eyeing the congealing coffee on Seulgi’s screen with thinly concealed disgust. Actually, just disgust. She wasn’t concealing any of it. “What in the world happened? I can’t leave you two unsupervised can I?”

“Hey,” Joy said with mild irritation, “the evening was going very nicely. We had a nice quiet time sorting the media, no one talking, just some clicks here and there and--what?” Joy asked when she saw Yeri’s frown.”

“Y’all really are no jam duo.”

“No, no, no, wait til I show you what---”

“Found it!” Seulgi yelled, crawling out from under a table with a towel in her hand. She began looking through their storage bins. She shuffled about, completely ignoring the other two girls. “Now to find the screen cleaner and antibacterial wipes…”

Joy’s arms fell to her sides. “Actually, you’re absolutely right,” she sighed defeatedly. “We really are no jam .”

The youngest eyed Joy with raised brows and a shoulder shrug that said, told you so.

“But,” Joy continued, “you should still see this though, once Dduelgi here cleans off her screen.”

Seulgi shot her coworker, and supposedly best friend, a side eye. “I don’t know why I keep you guys around, it really only heightens my misery.”

“Because I’m a y dynamite,” Joy said matter of factly.

“And because without me, you would literally never make any money,” Yeri said as she crossed her arms. “Neither of you know how to upload to the servers.” She leaned towards Seugli’s laptop. “Now hurry up and show me the thing that makes me think you guys are fun.”

“Oh no,” Seugli said panicked, “you can’t see this. You’re too young and innocent to be looking at things like this.” She put her hands in front of the screen in a very poor attempt to hide the image.

The youngest crossed her arms and cocked her head. “Let’s be real unnie, if anyone is innocent here, it’s you. I’ve seen thongs before.”

“Oh very true, Kim Yerim-ssi,” Joy sing-songed mockingly. “ Kkangsuel blushes during kdrama kiss scenes.”

Seulgi sighed, deflated, her shoulders slumping. “I was only trying to shield you from the evils of the world.”

“I’m twenty-one, not eight.” Yeri said with an eye roll. “I’ve seen a lot more worldly things than thongs--”

Seulgi flicked her head, as trying to shoo away the information the younger woman was telling her.

“--and I’ve certainly collected a fair amount of thongs.”

“Yah!” Seulgi yelled, covering her ears quickly.

“TMI! TMI!” Joy screamed, shoving Yeri.

The youngest only cackled louder in response. Seulgi squeezed her eyes tighter, in a misguided attempt to push the information out of her brain. Once the ruckus had died down a bit, Yeri resumed the conversation, much to Seulgi’s chagrin.

“So I’m guessing Seulgi has the hots for the doc?” 

She didn’t bother responding, she just placed a hand over her eyes and sighed.

This was going to be a very long eleven weeks.

The next morning Seulgi woke from someone yelling outside their barracks. 

“Excuse me?” he called. “Seulgi-ssi?”

The woman rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and yawned lazily. She stumbled to the front of the tent and opened it, squinting in the bright light. When her eyes adjusted, she realized that she didn’t recognize the person in front of her.

He was tall, taller than Minho even. Also cut quite an impressive figure, from his broad shoulders to his chiseled features. What caught Seulgi off guard was that unlike everyone else in the compound, the man had blue eyes and dirty blond hair.

“Can I help you?” she said quizzically.

“Sorry to bother you so early,” he said apologetically, “Minho has requested your presence at a briefing. We will be sending out a team to a remote location and they would like to go over the itinerary with you and your team.”

Seulgi nodded in understanding. “We will get ready and be there shortly. Thank you, Mister ----” she trailed off.

The man sensed her hesitation and filled in the blank. “Erik, it’s just Erik,” he laughed. “I’m one of the assistant guides under Minho-ssi.” His eyes formed little half moons as he smiled. Seulgi thought it made his face brighter, and although it didn’t make her forget her vocabulary like a certain doctor did, she was sure someone else in her building would appreciate it. As if on queue, Yeri showed up a half second later.

“Hiiiiii Erik,” she cooed, her hands on Seulgi’s shoulder as she lifted a foot daintily. Seulgi shrugged her off with disdain. “It’s nice to meet you,” she continued, as if the other woman weren’t there.

Seulgi felt her insides shrivel up and her fingers were curling into fists, yet somehow Yeri did something else that made her want to punch something.

“I’m Katy,” Yeri said in a voice that Seulgi assumed was her y voice, but actually sent chills down the older woman’s spine. It didn’t sound anything like she normally did.

“Alright,” Seulgi said, deciding the nonsense had gone far enough. She reached for the door and began closing it. “Thanks again Erik!”

“Byyyyye Erik!”

Seulgi ignored Yeri and walked back towards her bed. Joy was up, putting face cream on in a nearby mirror.

“Who the hell is Katy?” she asked. 

Seulgi shook her head quickly, pretending the last five minutes never happened.

“You’ve gotta stop doing that, Yeri,” Joy scoffed. “When you flirt it makes people think you’re a serial killer.”

“Oh!” Seulgi exclaimed, brain slowly catching up. “Is that why…?”

“Yes!” Joy said. “The pizza boy thought she was gonna murder him and turn him into pizza toppings.”

“What?” Yeri shrugged. “He was cute. No idea where he got the murder idea from.”

“You answered the door with a crossbow and said 'Peek a Boo,’” Joy scolded. “How could he not get the wrong impression?”

"I did a y dance after I took the pizza."

"Which I'm sure he thought was a ritual dance for your murderous cult," Joy argued back.

Yeri didn’t verbalize a response, merely shrugging her shoulders and smirking.

“Hurry up, we’ll be late,” Seulgi shook her head as she walked out the door.

Minho stood at the front of the main hall, giving people nods and half smiles as they walked in.

The trio stumbled in and took their seats in an empty row.

Despite herself, Seulgi noticed the exact moment Dr. Bae entered the room. She was dressed casually, in simple cargo pants and a v neck shirt, and yet she still managed to outshine everyone in the room by a mile. Unlike Seulgi, who’s hair was tied up in a messy bun, the doctor’s hair was down, cascading in gentle waves over her shoulders. She was impressed; the climate had rendered Seulgi’s hair into one giant frizz fest.

Once again, as if the woman could feel Seulgi’s eyes on her, she turned towards her, executing a perfect hair flip in the process. Seulgi felt her eyes widen for a millisecond before she hurriedly looked away.

Her cheeks burned. Did Dr. Bae see her staring? If she noticed, could the ground open up right now to swallow her? Could Seulgi possibly be anymore embarrassing? 

“Kang Seulgi-ssi?” 

“Yes?” she answered, looking up in the direction of the voice. The speaker was another handsome man (was there a non-handsome man in the entirety of this compound?). His jet black hair was combed neatly to the side, framing his sharp nose and flawless features. She recognized him from her photos as Kim Junmyeon, affectionately called Suho, and the person responsible for funding the entire expedition.

“How has the documentary process been going? It’s been about a week since we arrived; you must’ve captured a lot of wonderful moments,” he smiled.

“Ah yes,” Seulgi nodded, “We’ve recorded a lot of moments. Between Joy--” she pointed to said person, “and myself, I think what we’ve captured will really allow people to feel as if they’re right here.”

“Excellent,” he said with a bright smile. “Could we see some of the images? If you have them available?”

“Well--” she trailed off. Seulgi always kept two copies of the images while on shoots: one master hard drive in a fireproof, waterproof portable safe, and a usb flash drive on a keychain, so she had them on her person at all times. She hesitated. The images on the flash drive had a different----feel than the images she normally took. Not to mention, they might feature someone a bit more prominently than others. Feeling like minutes, the seconds ticked by, until Joy spoke up.

“Suho-ssi, we have a lot of media to review, so I think Seulgi might be a little reluctant to show you work that is below our standards.” 

Seulgi could’ve kissed Joy at that moment. Sometimes, the younger woman frustrated her to no end, with her relentless teasing and her unnerving skill to make Seulgi uncomfortable. Seulgi could think of at least a few instances where she wanted to wrap her hands around Joy’s throat. But then the infuritating woman would do something like this to quell Seulgi’s anger and she’d love the dumb giant all over again. She gave Joy a big eye smile. Joy smiled back.

“But she has a flash drive that we can plug into the projector to show you some preliminary work.”

And just like that, Seulgi was sizing the hands in her lap against the circumference of Joy’s neck. So to answer her internal question earlier, yes, she absolutely could in fact be more embarrassing.

“Great!” Suho clapped his hands. “You can use this laptop here.” 

Everyone seemed oblivious to Seulgi’s turmoil as Joy pried the USB drive out of her fingers. The taller woman plugged it in and set it to slide show mode. Seulgi felt her insides slowly turning to stone. Beside her, Yeri leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“Dude, you need to chill out. Why are you getting so worked up? You didn’t put the thong pic on there did you?”

Seulgi shot her a glare. “Of course not,” she hissed.

“Then relaaax,” Yeri drawled. Leaning back into her chair and folding her arms, she added, “You always take nice pictures, I don’t know why you’re so uptight.”

You’ll see in a minute, Suelgi thought.

The lights dimmed and the slideshow started. Seulgi almost forgot how many photos she had taken over the past few days. As they slid by every few seconds, she became increasingly aware of the fact that a certain face kept showing up a little too often. 

Dr. Bae’s face was quite prominent in the images. Seulgi had captured her in a variety of situations, yet she was only ever cool and composed in the images. Like velvet, she was never ruffled, her hair always perfect, her expression never wavering. Just as one would expect from a top doctor. 

If Seulgi were to guess, Dr. Bae was featured in every three images (okay, every two, what could she say, the doctor photographed very well). She tried to justify it. The doctor was photogenic, she was the head of the medical team so she should be featured the most, etc . But Seulgi knew that deep down, she couldn’t help it. Dr. Bae was simply too beautiful for Seulgi to look away.

The lights came back on and Suho took up the center again. 

“Thank you Seulgi-ssi, that was wonderful,” he smiled. “As I’m sure we all noticed, our incomparable Dr. Irene is stunning. She absolutely shines in all of those photos.” He grinned at the doctor, who simply stared impassively in return. “Yes, yes, she is amazing in every single picture, just as she is amazing in real life.”

Seulgi chanced a look at the physician. The woman had ducked her head. Though she wasn’t smiling, the faint blush coloring her cheeks was unmistakable. A taste of bile climbed to the back of Seulgi’s throat. She was never one for PDA, and Chairman Kim was practically shooting love arrows from his eyeballs. She was partly conflicted: was she upset because the guy was gag worthy, or because he was on a first name basis with the beautiful woman? 

Up until that moment, she hadn’t learned the doctor’s first name. 

Irene.  

It sure sounded fancy. Like if she hadn't become a doctor, Seulgi imagined her as a computer programmer, hiding behind large, round-framed glasses. Or maybe as the emcee of a music program, if she smiled more. She could’ve even been the leader of an idol group, dancing to y songs. Or maybe even cute ones.

Seulgi shook her head. That last notion was especially ridiculous.

“On that note,” Suho said, and Seulgi had a flash of fear as she wondered if he was reading her mind, “let’s get back to the reason why we’re here. There is an island nearby called Nosy Boraha. We’ve received a report about a possible case. Because it is a single case and is yet unconfirmed, we will not be dispatching a whole crew. However, we will still be sending our camera crew to document the encounter. I will now defer to Leader Choi to go over the details.”

Suho bowed out and Minho stood up, taking his place.

“Right, thank you Kim-ssi. The primary objective here is confirmation and containment. If it is indeed a case, we want to isolate them from the population before it can spread. Tomorrow, we will be dispatching two teams to the island. They will be flown in via helicopter, as the village is an area that is too difficult for vehicles to reach. We will only be taking the minimal amount of people. Before we go any further, I’d like to introduce one of my assistant guides.” 

Minho gestured to a man in front of him. The man stood up. He was nearly as tall as his boss, and upon first glance Seulgi thought he would be just as serious as the leader, as they both wore the same stern expression. Seulgi was wrong however, when a second later the man smiled and instantly seemed twenty times warmer.

“Hey guys, I’m Kai,” he said in a deep baritone voice.

After Kai sat down. Minho continued on, “Kai and I will each be co-piloting a chopper. Henry and Mark will be the main flight captains. From the medical team, Dr. Son Seungwan and nurse Lee Taeyong, and Dr. Im Yoona and nurse Jung Jaehyun.

“And although I don’t think it’s necessary in this case,” Minho casted a side glance towards Suho that obviously held unspoken issues, “Seulgi-ssi and Yeri-ssi will be coming to record everything.”

The head photographer let out a breath. She was quite worried she would be forced to follow Dr. Bae around, and after the #ThongIncident2020, Seulgi wasn’t sure how she would’ve survived.

“Excuse me,” a quiet voice interrupted. All heads turned towards the speaker, who pushed her hair behind her shoulder. 

“Why am I not included?” Dr. Bae asked.

“As Senior Medical Officer, Dr. Bae,” Minho said, “we felt that you would prefer to send your subordinates instead.”

“I would prefer,” she said icily, “that you not assume you can read my mind.” 

Seulgi wondered how Minho didn’t melt right there from her glare. 

“And they are not my subordinates, they are my colleagues.” Dr. Bae crossed her arms.

“Irene-ssi,” Suho pleaded, “it’s a remote village. It’s safer for you to remain here; the village is located in a dangerous area.” 

That was very much the wrong thing to say. Seulgi almost winced as he said it.

“So you’re saying,” she turned to Suho, “that because it’s dangerous, I should let someone else go because they’re less important and as such, it’s okay if they get hurt or die?”

“That’s not what we’re saying--”

“What I’m saying,” Dr. Bae cut across, “is that I am going. Dr. Son is the best pathologist here so she should be accompanying us, while Dr. Im is more than capable of maintaining the medical facility. It is no less than if I were here myself.” 

A beat passed, and Minho and Suho exchanged glances to see if the other was going to challenge the seething woman. Sensing their defeat, Minho simply said, “As you wish.”

If only they knew, it was Seulgi’s defeat as well.

“Y’know Boss Lady,” Yeri said as they loaded the equipment into the helicopter, “your girfriend was scary as yesterday.”

“Not my girlfriend, but otherwise you’re not wrong.”

“And,” the younger one continued on, “I’d say you picked a good one to have a pathetic crush on.”

“Yeri-ah,” Seulgi said nicely, seemingly unbothered by the teasing as she brushed imaginary dirt from the girl's shoulder, “when you get on the helicopter, don’t bother buckling in, it’ll make it so much harder for me to push you out of it.”

Yeri cackled in return.

As luck would have it, they wouldn’t even get to ride together. Something about having to offset weight or what not. The universe would continue to conspire against Seulgi.

Minho, Mark, Yeri, Dr. Son and Taeyong were in one chopper, while Seulgi was with Kai, Henry, Jaehyun and Dr. Bae. She swallowed her tongue as the Dr. Bae took a seat next to her. The loud whirring of the blades was dulled by the headset she put on. Kai’s voice crackled over the din.

“You guys good?” He gave a thumbs up and a questioning grin.

Seulgi gave him a thumbs up in response, and soon the helicopter was rising. The compound shrank from their view, just as most of her thoughts did to center on Dr. Bae.

This was the closest Seulgi had ever been to her. She could smell the faint hints of lavender wafting off of the doctor, and her skin was a pale, milky white, as smooth as cream.

Seulgi had assumed (maybe even hoped) that this would be a quiet chopper ride. After all, she had never seen Dr. Bae initiate or engage in idle chatter, and the photographer was not going to be the one to start it. No, if she had her way, extremely awkward silence was her route of choice. Because if she spoke to Dr. Bae, images of her face and a certain piece of purple lingerie would creep into her mind, and she wouldn’t be able to chase them away.

As if sensing what she was trying to do, the doctor caught Seulgi's attention.

“Thank you for the photos you’ve taken. They were lovely.”

Seulgi tried to stammer out a response, but she couldn’t hear herself over the din. Her headset wasn’t working. Dr. Bae looked at her quizzically, her eyebrows furrowing. The photographer felt around her headset, wondering if something was unplugged, then followed the cable up to the ceiling, where it connected to the chopper. 

Seulgi flinched when something brushed her neck, and she almost threw herself out of the chopper when she saw that it was the beautiful doctor's hands on her neck. The woman was fiddling with the headphones, looking at it impassively, adjusting something calmly, which was the exact opposite of Seulgi’s heart rate. 

Seulgi’s chest was thrumming uncontrollably, a flush rising in her neck and cheeks as the doctor continued to fiddle. Her fingers were lightly brushing against Seulgi’s skin, leaving a trail of flames every time she upset the tiny hairs at her nape. The photographer sat still as a statue, save for her eyes, which were darting around nervously.

She silently sent a thanks to the universe for allowing her to flail on her own, without Joy or Yeri to watch her as she did the panicked gay routine.

Finally, the doctor sat back satisfied.

“Try that now,” she said.

“Test test.”

Jaehyun and Kai turned in Seulgi's direction, giving her a nod and thumbs up.

“Th-thanks,” she stammered, giving Dr. Bae a nervous smile.

The other woman pointed to a button on the ceiling and pressed it, then she pointed to a similar button on Seulgi’s panel. Catching on, Seulgi also pressed hers.

“That gives us a private channel,” the doctor's voice crackled in her headphones, “so we don’t bother the others.”

“Ah I see,” Seulgi nodded. “And you’re very welcome for the pictures, Dr. Bae”

“It’s Irene,” she said with a closed lip smile.

“Dr. Irene?” Seulgi said playfully, before freezing because she knew the doctor didn’t do playful. To her surprise though, Dr. Bae only laughed.

“Just Irene,” she chuckled. “But if you were my patient, I’d ask you to call me Dr. Bae.” 

Was that a joke?

Seulgi was thrown. She’d followed Dr. Bae--Irene, she corrected herself--for the past week and she had seen never this side of her, only the Dr. Bae that was laser focused and serious. 

“Could I ask you a favor?” Irene asked her quietly.

Seulgi nodded a firm yes. 

“Could you take more photos of the other team members as well? Instead of me?”

Seulgi panicked. She tried to think of some excuse for her borderline obsession with the doctor, but Irene seemed to misinterpret Seulgi’s silence as offense.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate your photos,” she said quickly, “but I think some of the others should get some recognition as well.”

Seulgi still hadn’t come up with a response, so the doctor continued on.

“I know they told you to take the photos of me because I’m considered the leader of the medical group, but Suho’s notion can be a bit….tiresome.” She looked wearily at Seulgi, who nodded. Truthfully, they had told Seulgi nothing of the sort, but if it saved her some embarrassment, she’d roll with it.

“I think the best word to describe it is perhaps 'fanboy'?” Seulgi chanced. She was rewarded with another laugh.

“You may be right,” Irene giggled behind her hand. “But he’s also a bit scared of me so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“Yeah, you can be a bit scary,” Seulgi responded without thinking. She quickly clapped a hand over , horrified. 

Irene laughed softly, playing with her hair. “It’s alright. I hear that a lot. But that’s enough about me,” she redirected the conversation, “tell me about yourself.”

Seulgi didn’t know where to start, so she told her everything. She talked about her love for art in all its forms, from photography, to music, to paintings. She spoke of her love of nature and adventure. She talked about how she got her start, photographing her friends as they went rock climbing in Yosemite, or rappelling canyons in New Zealand or mountaineering in France. How all of that eventually led to here being here, in a helicopter, flying over Madagascar making a documentary for the National Geographic.

For her part, Irene was an attentive listener. Her eyes never wavered from Seulgi, giving her her undivided attention, smiling every now and then, and giving Seulgi the reassurance that she was actually heard. 

All Seulgi had ever heard was how cold Dr. Bae was. How she was too stern and always serious. That she never joked or laughed, how she never had fun. But that was not who Seulgi saw. At least not anymore. 

The doctor wasn’t particularly gregarious, though she did laugh, and when she did, it was like sunlight peeking through the cracks. She seemed cold, but Seulgi had already seen how warm she was for her colleagues, volunteering to come here, and how she listened to Seulgi, as if that was all she had wanted in the world. 

Too entranced by their conversation, Seulgi barely noticed the helicopter touching down, only realizing it when the rest of the cabin removed their headsets. She unbuckled herself and clambered down the steps, gallantly reaching back to help Irene off the chopper. The doctor smiled shyly and ducked her head as she allowed Seulgi to assist her. The photographer felt sparks run up her arm, igniting from the fingertips where they connected to each other.

The teams began setting up their temporary basecamp. The men began setting up the various tents, while the two doctors rummaged through the medical equipment. Yeri and Seulgi began hauling their camera equipment off the chopper towards their compound. Even for a short stay, there was an innumerable amount of storage bins and bags that had accompanied them. They their stuff in the area their tent would be set up, and Seulgi went back to help the others shuttle gear.

On her third trip back, she ran into Irene again. The petite woman was grunting loudly, yet it still sounded oddly cute. Her face was scrunched up, though she looked more pouty than angry. Seulgi rushed over and picked up the other side of the large container Irene had been trying to lift. 

“Thanks,” the other woman said breathlessly. 

“Let’s maybe grab smaller boxes on the next round, huh?” Seulgi smiled. "Let's leave the heavy stuff for Yeri."

Irene giggled, and Seulgi thought that her new hobby might just be trying to make Irene laugh more.

It had been nice, getting to talk to the doctor one on one, without the prescence of Joy or Yeri or the stupid thong sabotoging her thoughts. In fact, it had been nice just to simply talk. Seulgi was telling Irene as much when Yeri called over.

Irene and Seulgi paused their conversation to look at the younger girl, who was casually strolling over.

“I said, ‘I was looking for the thing.”

“What thing?” Seulgi said quizzically.

“Oh you know,” Yeri said dramatically, snapping her fingers for effect. “What was it called now? Ugh, I can’t remember, it’s the, uh--”

“What?” Seulgi sighed exasperatedly.

“The, uhm, golly gee--string. ” She stared directly at Seulgi, letting the pun sink in.

Seulgi froze, her face heating up. “What string?” she grunted out between clenched teeth.

“The one to plug into the cameras,” Yeri replied innocently, but her eyes sparkled with mischief.

“The cable? You mean the cable??” Seulgi said, eyes flashing.

"That's right, the cable!" Yeri clapped her hands together theatrically. "How could I forget?"

“It’s in there, the storage bin under the table,” Seulgi said quickly, wanting to get rid of Yeri as fast as possible.

“Oh?” Yeri said, turning slowly. “Under wherrrrre ?” Again she let the pun hang in the air, and Seulgi felt her body turn red all over. She grabbed Yeri’s shoulders and roughly turned her around, stammering out an apology to Irene.

“I’m sorry, this won’t be long, I just need to help Yeri find somethong --thing! Something!” she yelped frantically, quickly shoving the other girl towards the nearby table and kneeling to rummage through the bins. 

Once she felt out of earshot of the doctor, Seulgi pinched the other girl’s side.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed.

“Having some fun, Slowgi, ” Yeri said with a swat of her hand. “You’re such a wreck, Boss Lady.”

“And you’re a nuisance,” Seulgi said indignantly.

“But a cute nuisance,” Yeri replied nonchalantly, “and anyway, the cable’s not in here. It must be in the bin over there." She pointed towards a small box near Irene’s feet. Seulgi rolled her eyes and walked over. 

“What’s wrong?” Irene asked, sensing some tension in the air.

“Nothing,” Seulgi waved off, “but I think what we’re looking for is in that bin behind you.”

“Oh?” the doctor looked around. “This one?” she asked, pointing to the box.

Seulgi nodded, and Irene turned to grab the bin.

In all honesty, Seulgi should’ve been ready. She should’ve expected it. She knew what was going to happen before it did, and yet she did nothing to avert her gaze. 

As the doctor kneeled, there, above the waistband of her cargo pants, unable to be hidden by a shirt that was just the slightest bit too short, was the creeping sight of another thong. 

Seulgi didn’t --couldn't--say anything, barely managing to bring her arms up to receive the bin, before robotically turning around and marching away in the opposite direction.

Black.

It was black this time.

Tis the slowest of burns! I hope you're having fun. Also, are you enjoying the random canon RV references? I'll be trying to use as many real kpop things as I can, so I hope you spot them all.