LE and Solji sighed internally as they unlocked the door to their home. After meeting with the three girls, they insisted on staying over, saying that the two unnies have to make it up to them for scaring them so badly. They wouldn't have minded it so much, if only their apartment was bigger. It was so small that the only furniture they have was the queen-sized bed, a foldable small desk for LE's laptop, and a closet for their clothes. How were they even going to squeeze together on the bed?

"It's small, but it's cozy." Hyelin commented as they looked around.

"Yeah. It really feels like home." Jeonghwa agreed.

"I feel so comfortable here, even more than my own home. Can I live here forever?" Hani asked jokingly as she sat down on the floor, to which the two oldest comically replied at the same time with a loud "NO!". The three younger girls burst into laughter, the two unnies sharing looks before joining them.

"So," Hani began as they sat down together on the floor, chatting happily and catching up with one another to make up for the months of absence. "When will you two find a girlfriend?" With that single question, 4 girls were left choking on their drinks.

"W-W-What's with that sudden question?" Solji spluttered, struggling to recover from the choking. Hani just shrugged.

"I mean, it sounds bad, but your family isn't here to stop you anymore. You're free to love anyone you like now."

"I mean, she has a point. Back then, you couldn't date anyone because you didn't want to let your family know." Jeonghwa started.

"But now, nobody's stopping you anymore. And we've already established that we'll support you whether you date a boy or a girl. So why not?" Hyelin added.

"N-No!" Solji exclaimed, leaning towards LE and grabbing her hand. "I'm just... I think it's a little too soon for us to date, girls." She said, rubbing circles on the back of LE's hand. "I mean, we've only just recently started to pick ourselves up again." LE nodded in agreement as she placed her other hand comfortingly over Solji's hand, putting a stop to her nervous fidgeting.

"Yeah, what she said. We haven't exactly been social after leaving our families, you know. You girls are the first people we've actually talked to properly other than each other since the incident. We didn't even bother contacting our families."

"Are you still angry? At your family, I mean." Jeonghwa asked timidly. LE just chuckled bitterly.

"Angry? No. I'm not angry at them. Well, not much anymore, I think. It's just that I'm still..." A lump suddenly welled up in , stopping her from speaking as she bit her lips.

"...hurt." Solji finished softly as LE nodded in agreement. She looked up, unshed tears in her eyes. "I can handle being shunned by strangers. I can probably bear friends leaving me. But just knowing that my own family won't accept who I am, enough to abandon me even after proclaiming that they would love me no matter what, hurts more than you can imagine." She said, unconsciously moving closer to LE, seeking silent comfort from her. "And honestly speaking? I don't think I will ever recover fully from this."

"Me neither.” LE said, moving closer to Solji as well. “I still get nightmares about meeting them again every now and then. I don't even want to think of what will happen if I actually meet them again. If we can't even overcome this hurt from our families, what makes you think we're ready to date?"

"Alright. But when you're ready someday, let me know. I can even help introduce you to someone." Hani teased with a wink.

"You can always come to us for anything, ok?" Hyelin said as they nodded, a smile appearing on their faces at that.

"Yeah, we know. Thanks, girls."

"They finally left." LE heaved a sigh of relief. "After a week of cramping together in this small apartment." She groaned as she flopped down onto the bed. "Finally, we can have our bed to ourselves again." Solji just chuckled.

"I kinda liked what they said about our house though. That it's small but cozy and really feels like home. That’s a pretty accurate description to me." She said as she laid down next to LE.

"Same. Still, it doesn't change the fact that our house is small."

"True." Solji gave a small chuckle as LE stood up.

"Well, let's go bathe and head to bed. I'm tired from dealing with those chaotic three." Solji just laughed as she stood up as well.

"Don't be mean."

When Solji woke up, she smiled when she noticed that instead of sleeping horizontally across the bed with her legs dangling out, she was sleeping vertically in the bed with her legs comfortably tucked in. Turning to her side, her smile widened when she saw LE's sleeping face, peaceful and content unlike Heeyeon and Hyelin, who slept on either side of her while they stayed over. The memory of the shock she received when she first woke up to the two's unglamorous faces made her chuckle, which ended up waking LE, who smiled sleepily as soon as she saw her.

"Good morning. What are you laughing about?" Solji just grinned.

"Remember how I got so shocked when I saw Heeyeon's sleeping face and turned to the other side only to get shocked again by Hyelin's sleeping face?" LE laughed at that.

"Yeah, and you got so shocked by hers that you jumped back and headbutted Heeyeon, which started a domino effect because Heeyeon recoiled and hit me, and I slammed into Jeonghwa." Solji laughed too.

"I remember that."

"Of course you do. And when you headbutted Heeyeon, your first instinct was to curl up in pain, and you ended up kneeing Hyelin in the gut. Everyone woke up in pain that day." They laughed at the memory before letting a comfortable silence come over them for a while until LE let out a soft sigh. "So, about what Heeyeon said that day."

"Hm?" She turned her head to look to Solji.

"What do you think about it?"

"The one about dating again?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know. I've never really thought about it." LE was laying on her side by now, fully facing Solji.

"If...If either one of us gets a girlfriend, one of us will have to move out, won't we? Either so the girlfriend can move in, or to go live with the girlfriend." Solji was silent, unmoving for a while.

"....No." She to her side to face LE. "I'd hate that, so no. I’m happy being with you like this, and I'm perfectly fine with living with you for the rest of my life." LE just smiled as she reached out to hold Solji's hand, to which Solji responded by entwining their fingers.

"Me too, unnie." She murmured, the loving smile on her face matching Solji's. "I’m happy with you too, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you by my side."