“Something has been on my mind for a while now!”

Hitomi sighed; slowly getting up and leaning her back against the headboard as she looked at Nako with tired, half-lidded eyes.

“Not just something,” Nako huffed. “But a lot of things! Not exactly a lot but it’s plenty of them! Not reaching hundreds, but so so close!”

“What is it?” The Tochigi native interrupted, stifling a yawn as she asked Nako her question. “It’s past my bedtime, Nako-chan; I just want to sleep.”

“It’s an urgent matter I need to pour it out to the world, and for the world to listen, Hii-chan,” Nako said vehemently, pouting as she pounded her fists to the mattress. They bounced slightly. “And since you’re my world, then I will tell it to you! Honestly, it’s been ticking me off ever since we started sleeping--”

“Rooming,” Hitomi hastily corrected, her eyes widening back to their normal size. “Ever since we started rooming together.”

Nako's eyebrows wiggled suggestively. “We’re not technically rooming together,” the midget argued. “But sleepi--”

Hitomi glared at her. Her menacing glare promised her demise should Nako continued. “Room,” she stressed out, her tone final.

Nako rolled her eyes, backtracking. “Whatever,” she relented, because she really wasn’t that scared of Hitomi’s scary glare that, Nako swore, if a glare could kill; she would be loonnggg dead.

Really, she wasn’t.

Affected? Hell yes. But scared? Pfft, no.

But all evidence pointed to that direction.

And everyone but her acknowledged it.

“So?” Hitomi’s croaky voice was a clear sign she just wanted to sleep. “What’s been ticking you off?”

“A lot of things,” Nako answered quickly. “Lots of them came from you, Hii-chan. Like, more than thirty nine of them.”

“Me?” Hitomi had the right to look offended. She even ignored the strangely specific number. “You are the one who ticks me off every night! Seriously, when are you going to make up with Yuri? I want to slee- uh, cuddle, with anyone but you, too!”

“Until when are you going to hide the fact your cuddling session with Minjoo is, in fact, a making-out session?” Nako questioned, ignoring the younger’s previous question. “And yes, I’ve walked in before.”

“We never made out,” Hitomi stressed out again, actually looking stressed this time. “She was only kissing me on the cheek when you walked in, screaming because You Broke Yuri’s iPad and She Was Out for Your Blood!”

“Cheek? Pretty sure it was a bit lower than that and moreover, she was on top of you!” Nako grinned, once again ignoring the topic about her. She placed her palm over Hitomi’s stomach. “When’s the date?”

Hitomi couldn’t take it. She kicked her off her bed.

-

“I Can’t Believe you did that,” battered Nako muttered with a roll of her eyes, nursing her sore thigh where Hitomi’s kick landed. It was a mean kick. “You’ve become a lot more aggressive since you started dating Yujin.” Nako paused. “...Was the coloring date even that fun?”

“Oh so now it’s me dating Yujin?” Hitomi really couldn’t believe this short creature called Nako. “It wasn’t a date--it was just a bonding time, idiot. What’s next, Chaewon unnie?”

Nako actually nodded her head in approval, looking so proud she was almost tearful. “Ssambbang endgame for sure. Unless you are up for,” wiggling eyebrows, “Menage a trois.”

Her tiredness forgotten, Hitomi felt her stomach churn unpleasantly at the mental image.

“You are completely insane,” she managed to say, trying her best not to blanch.

Nako shrugged. “Yabuki Nako, at your service. But Hii-chan, kiss marry kill: Yujin, Minjoo, Chaewon unnie!”

Hitomi didn’t even need to think. “Kiss Minjoo, marry Chaewon unnie, kill Yabuki Nako.”

“I WASN’T EVEN IN THE OPTION.”

“Rooming with you wasn’t in the option but here you are.”

“Rude, Hii-chan. RUDE.”

-

Hitomi glanced at the clock and had to hold herself back from strangling the chatty midget sitting beside her.

Nako had been talking for two hours.

Hitomi’s ears had yet to fall off, but it already felt like it already.

“Nako, seriously shut up.”

Nako looked offended. Momentarily pausing on her rant, she told Hitomi. “But it’s been bugging me and keeping me away from my sleep!”

“You are keeping me away from my sleep,” growled Hitomi, her nearly limitless patience running dangerously thin. “Stop being such a spoiled child and just tell me the biggest thing that’s been bugging you.”

Nako stopped talking and Hitomi was under the false pretense that Nako was actually considering it.

“But I’m still on number 5.”

“UUUUGHHHHHH.”

-

“Just how many problems it is that has been bugging you?”

“About 99,” Nako answered. “And you’re one of them--patience! We’re on number 81!”

Hitomi nearly broke down in tears.

-

“Number 99! Yo, Hii-chan! Are you listening?”

Hitomi yawned. Her tired bloodshot eyes glaring daggers at Nako.

But of course, she wasn’t affected.

“Good, good!” Nako said, looking anything but happy. “Because the 99th is: why do you always sleep with your back to me?!”

“...huh?”

“I WANT TO BE HUGGED!” Cried the midget. “Like, from the front! I think everyone but you have hugged me to sleep like that! Even Wonyoung!”

“Then get cuddled by Wonyoung,” Hitomi snapped harshly. “Or make up with Yuri so you can go cuddle like what fans assumed!”

“But I want you!”

“Oh God shut up it’s 2 AM.”

“HUG MEEEEE--”

Hitomi screeched.

“YABUKI NAKO GET OFF ME.”

-

“Now now, isn’t it nice?”

“This lacked consent on my part.”

“Shush, I know you like hugging me like this.”

“Outrageous.”

And yet Hitomi pulled her closer, until Nako’s nose was filled with nothing but Hitomi’s natural scent. Sweet vanilla; so feminine and so Hitomi.

“Hey Hii-chan?”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t mind sharing.”

“... Yabuki Nako, if you value your life, shut up.”