the first time seungwan brings joohyun home, she neglects to tell her girlfriend that she and her sisters had a little gremlin they called a dog.

they're a couple months into their relationship at this point, seungwan could hardly keep it a secret from her sisters. yerim would always be the first one to make jibes at her sister when she came home with remnants of smudged lipstick on her cheeks. seulgi is a little kinder on the other hand, sometimes she would laugh and other times she would join in. either way, they both made it very clear that they wanted to meet this joohyun-unnie who constantly leaves traces of herself on their sister.

she runs the idea by her girlfriend with her anxiety bursting at the seams. it seems a little early to be meeting family but to her utmost relief, joohyun readily agrees.

"are you absolutely sure you're okay with this?" seungwan asks for the nth time that night. she’s spending the night at joohyun’s again, though her sisters will drop sarcastic little comments when she gets home, she knows they’re secretly glad to be away from her nagging. 

"yes, seungwan-ah," joohyun sighs whilst patting her girlfriend on the arm, "you speak the world of your sisters, it's high time i met them."

"i know but i don't want to pressure you…" the blonde's words trail off into silence and her lips lift into an unconscious pout.

seungwan has asked multiple times since she brought it up during dinner. hell, it’s been a few hours and they’re all cuddled up in bed now and she’s still looking for any trace of reluctance in joohyun. while most would find seungwan a worrywart, joohyun thinks her concern comes from a place of love — something that she absolutely adores about her. she sends a quick message before dropping her phone to her side. shifting to clasp seungwan’s cheeks with her hands, joohyun pulls their faces close together and stares into the ever so loving eyes of her girlfriend.

“son seungwan, this is me telling you that i would love to meet your sisters. nothing about this makes me uncomfortable and i want to get to know them, okay?”

with squished cheeks, seungwan can’t exactly speak, so she settles for a gentle bob of her head.

“and i messaged yerim on instagram to set a date.”

“w-what?” is probably what seungwan tried to say but it comes out as a muffled mhwat instead .

joohyun turns her head before scrambling to find her phone that’s been miraculously buried under the sheets. the screen lights up as if on cue to show a single notification from the one and only kim yerim. she lifts it proudly and presents it to seungwan whose eyes widen in surprise.

Instagram Just now

Instagram

(renebaebae): yerimiese: how’s tomorrow? 😊

(renebaebae): yerimiese: come home with seungwan-unnie

the look of pure shock on seungwan’s face should be immortalized, so joohyun takes a picture before lifting seungwan’s jaw upwards. seungwan slaps away at her hand, leaving the older woman cackling as they return to their initial positions. being safely tucked into the crook of joohyun’s side, seungwan begins her interrogation.

“since when did you and yerim follow each other?”

“i’d say maybe about a month after we started dating?” joohyun shrugs casually as she taps a quick sounds good! to yerim, “seulgi follows me too.” she tosses her phone aside again, though not before sending the most recent picture in her gallery as well.

“those s!” seungwan cries out, her brows still stitched together in a frown, “they knew but they pretended to know nothing!”

joohyun doesn’t even try to muffle her laughter, a boisterous laugh escapes her lungs as she cuddles her girlfriend a little tighter. “maybe if you actually used instagram, you would’ve known.”

“i use it to like your pictures!” seungwan defends herself with a huff, “that should count for something!”

the older woman inhales deeply to calm down and she bobs her head in agreement to appease her mildly fuming girlfriend. “i meant beyond opening the app just to like my pictures,” she says gently, “that’s probably how they found me so easily too.”

“.”

“it’s not the end of the world, seungwan-ah, ” joohyun coos before adding on with a soft scoff, “besides, if i left it to you, i’d be lucky to meet them before the turn of the century.”

seungwan groans as she buries her face into joohyun’s ribs, “i hate that you’re right.”

“cheer up, i’m sure it’ll be fun.”

fun is the last thing on joohyun’s mind when a huge rat comes barrelling towards her just as she enters seungwan’s apartment. the rat barks and she registers it as a ing chihuahua. sheer panic overwhelms her as she shrieks and grabs seungwan to put anything between her and that demonic creature.

“w-why the do you have a dog?” joohyun demands, her tone borders between fear and anger, though the quiver in her voice suggests the former, “yah, son seungwan!”

seungwan turns to look at her with a sheepish smile, “well, meet monchi.”

“yah!” joohyun screeches as it takes a step closer, “don’t let it come near me!”

“i can’t do much when you’re clinging onto me like this!”

monchi, the demon of a dog, with large eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets, looks anything but sane. the sisters would agree wholeheartedly, seungwan adopted her one day, thinking it could accompany yerim when the older two are busy working. turns out, she brought home a little nightmare instead. the poor girl is terrified of just about anything and is clearly not the smartest dog in the world. so, the best they could do was to make sure that she isn’t terrified of them and that she didn’t eat things out of the trash. 

the little chihuahua loves seungwan the most, which would explain why she’s even trying to get close to a complete stranger.

seulgi and yerim, drawn out by the commotion, stands and watch as their lovely little gremlin scares the living hell out of their sister’s girlfriend. it would certainly make for a good memory in the future, though not the best first impression.

“should we help?” yerim nudges her oldest sister.

seulgi snickers as she whips out her phone, “a little more, let’s see how wannie gets out of this.”

“send it to sooyoung-unnie as proof that her favourite angel is actually terrorizing someone.”

“i’m her favourite angel,” seulgi clicks her teeth, “there’s no way monchi comes before me.”

the demon dog backs away with a whimper upon realising that joohyun is not one of her regular humans. she escapes somewhere within the apartment, far away from the new threat. joohyun relaxes as she peeks from behind seungwan, ensuring that the coast is clear, she turns her ire onto her girlfriend.

with a smack to her arm, she glares at seungwan. “you had months to tell me that you had a dog!”

“all you said was you’d rather not be locked in a room with one! i didn’t think you’d be deathly terrified!” the blonde counters with raised shoulders.

“what part of that screams i love dogs?”

seungwan bites her lower lip and lets out a nervous chuckle. “she’s not that bad, i promise. come on.”

“can i go home?”

“you wanted to meet my sisters.”

“i said your sisters, not your demon dog.”

the younger woman brushes it off as she yanks joohyun into the living room. her youngest sister is lounging on the couch with an amused smirk and needless to say, she heard the commotion and the bickering after.

yerim rises from her seat and hums teasingly, “should’ve told her about our lovely child before bringing her home.”

seungwan winces and doesn’t say a word for fear that joohyun would actually leave. she does the next logical thing — that is to introduce the two, yerim would find a way to distract her girlfriend from the threat of their dog.

while her sister keeps joohyun busy, seungwan checks on the unofficial child of the household, making sure that she isn't traumatised by her girlfriend.

"you've got a competitor, monch," seungwan muses as she scratches the head of the chihuahua, "but i think you'll like her too."

the pup stares blankly at her owner, tongue sticking out the side of as if devoid of any thoughts. seungwan exhales with a small smile, if she could get monchi to accept joohyun, surely the opposite would be doable as well.

they shared a nice dinner as planned; yerim and seulgi seem to like joohyun and it’s more than she could ever ask for. though monchi posed a different problem entirely, every time she attempted to approach the dining table, joohyun would tense up and squeal. which, in turn, would make the poor pup retreat back into one of the rooms. 

seungwan can’t decide if she feels worse for her girlfriend or monchi, she’s partially convinced that the little gremlin is infinitely more frightened by joohyun.

at the end of dinner, seungwan tries to get the two loves of her life to interact. despite a lot of shouting, joohyun relents on the condition that the demon is restrained. but even with seungwan holding monchi a whole meter away and yerim standing between them, they're still equally terrified of each other.

"monchi's more afraid of you than you are of her." seulgi comments with a snort as the scene unfolds, "the world is one big scary place to her."

joohyun gulps nervously as her fingers dig into yerim's arm, cowering behind the youngest, "i-i find that hard to believe."

yerim chimes in with an amused laugh, as she tugs joohyun forward, "oh, i wish we were wrong. maybe she could've gone further than the lift."

the older woman looks to the sisters before back at the trembling dog in seungwan's arms. with it being so far away, it does look like the creature can't wait to be away from joohyun. but she's sure that the same could be said of her.

"is this how she normally is? or does she just not like me?" joohyun questions as she relaxes from her defensive stance.

seulgi waves a hand in the air and shakes her head, "she's afraid of just about everything. from TVs to doorbells to my own girlfriend. give her a little time and she'll be everything you own."

"isn't that right, monchi?" seungwan coos at the quivering creature in her arms, "you accepted sooyoung, surely you can accept joohyun too. and joohyun can learn to accept you too."

joohyun sighs as seungwan looks at her with pleading eyes, how could she possibly say no when seungwan pulls that face? she would give this dog a chance. afterall, it's not like the lifespan of a dog is anything but short. seungwan seems to love her and she'd rather not be scared less every time she visits.

"fine, but that's as close as she gets tonight."

it takes weeks for joohyun to muster up the courage to return to seungwan's apartment. the demon dog comes running as usual but backs away quickly upon seeing joohyun.

it's a bummer, honestly. she never thought she would be rejected by a dog — she's supposed to be the one that runs from them!

seungwan tried her best to acclimate her gremlin by wearing more of her girlfriend's sweatshirts. at least that's the excuse she uses whenever she wants to borrow joohyun's clothes and it's not a complete lie. and to her disappointment, monchi is still deathly afraid of joohyun.

"you gotta come over more often." seungwan mumbles while they lounge on the couch after dinner.

joohyun frowns and retorts, "so your dog can terrorize me?"

"she's not even close!"

"i can feel her presence like an unseen monster!"

joohyun is technically right to trust her instincts; monchi is indeed hiding around the corner, just out of sight from the two humans.

"she's actually really sweet once you get to know her." the blonde pouts.

“you’re only saying that because she’s your dog.”

seungwan nods relentingly as she slings an arm around joohyun’s waist, pulling her girlfriend closer. “but if it really bothers you, i can just go over to your place. no more monchi related terrors, alright?”

“i-i mean… well,” joohyun attempts to explain but gives up on trying to find the right words. “bring her out, we can try again.”

seungwan leaps off the couch with the biggest grin on her face, racing to get her little demon while joohyun sits in her regret. the past few months together have only shown just how much seungwan loves her, so it’s about time she did something to reciprocate that. she would try for seungwan’s sake, besides, how hard would it be to convince herself that a small little chihuahua couldn’t hurt her?

as it turns out, it’s much easier to see her as a tiny loaf of bread instead of a demonic creature. though it still takes a few more tries before she even dares to be within an arm’s length of monchi. at some point, the weekends that seungwan would spend at her place turns into weekends she spends at her girlfriend’s instead. the two begin to fear each other a little lesser, though the best they could manage is to breathe in the same room.

yet, it happens one day, seemingly out of nowhere. joohyun is visiting as usual but this time, as she enters the apartment, monchi comes running towards her, skidding to a stop at a comfortable distance. the older woman freezes and stares, and the dog stares right back at her. she could hear seungwan bustling away in the kitchen, yerim and seulgi are out, so essentially, she has no one to protect her from monchi. she puts her hands out and takes a cautionary step forward, monchi takes a step back in return. are they still fearful of each other? probably, though not to the extent of their first meeting. she inches her way into the apartment with monchi watching her closely, with every steps she takes forward, monchi takes one back. it’s oddly heartwarming and joohyun can’t help but smile, maybe they've finally reached a turning point after however many months of trying.

“we’re getting there, aren’t we, monchi?”

after that one fateful encounter, joohyun and monchi have simultaneously decided to put aside their fears. with a couple more visits, her first time patting monchi turns into minute-long belly rub sessions for the pup. the sisters are more than happy to see their potential new addition to the family shower love upon their unofficial child.

monchi goes from watching joohyun at a distance to padding just beside her. and as much as her presence would give joohyun an occasional scare, she doesn’t mind the chihuahua. she follows joohyun everywhere now, and seungwan wonders if she’s still the pup’s favourite, probably not.

she asks one night, with a movie playing in the background and joohyun mindlessly patting monchi who’s seated comfortably on her lap.

"so, what happened to not liking dogs?"

joohyun bites back a smile, half-guessing where this conversation is headed. she hums, "i've reconsidered on monchi's account."

"and the verdict?" seungwan smiles smugly.

"she's a trembling ball of anxiety in the form of a chihuahua but i think i like her."

"what about me?"

"you?" joohyun smirks, "i might choose this little demon over you someday but until then, you’re safe.”

oh how the turns have tabled, seungwan could never have foreseen that she would be the one having to compete with her gremlin child. a whine escapes her lips and she pouts, “joohyun…”

with monchi snugly resting in her arms, she leans over to leave a kiss on seungwan’s lips. the couple cracks into a small smile and joohyun pulls back, shaking her head slowly.

“don’t be jealous of your dog, monchi won’t come close to stealing my love for you.”

“she’d probably be too scared.”

“you’re probably right.”