“Yeah Chae- it’s a really nice place! I’m unpacking right now— no you don’t need to come over— enjoy your free time with Eunbi unnie okay? Bye Chae, love you too,” Sakura pressed the red button on the phone screen, and the device went black. Sakura proceeds to place it on the bedside table, which was fresh out of the IKEA box.

After 7 years of promoting as IZ*ONE, Sakura finally decided to purchase her own home in Korea- it was high end service aparment near the uperclass city of Seoul- it had five rooms, two guest rooms and one master, Sakura planned to use one of the empty rooms to put all her ‘nerd’ stuff, while the other one was to be converted into a gaming room for her YouTube channel. The All Eyes tour ended in a huge success, the format of the concert and the storyline extremely popular among critics and fans alike.

They asked OTR for a break, and were given just that.

Sakura was seated on the bed now, fairly pleased with how it was furnished. A rack of (mostly Red Velvet) albums were situated at the very corner of the room. The room wasn’t as big as a typical master bedroom, but it had a walk-in closet, a legit bathroom (that she did not have to share with 5 other people), it fit her study, some books and a lot of her own albums— so it was fine by her.

Sakura found that door to her room was wide open, and she stands up, walking over to lean against the frame, looking at the hallway in front of her.

Her very own home.

She had to admit, she missed the chatter of her members— the times she’d go to Chaeyeon’s house to see Chaeri and Chaesoo running around. It was something she’d grown so farmiliar with. She had time off for another two months- plenty of time to settle down and maybe pay a visit back to the home town.

Sakura began walking around, pacing through her bare and new home. And Sakura of course loved pacing through the large space of the home. There was no TV nor was there a sofa yet, just a coffee table and a table to place the TV. Only the kitchen was completely furnished, but it was fine, she could invite Hyewon to go shopping one of these days.

She walked back to her room with the intention to grab her phone ask Hyewon about it, but then she noticed something.

The door to her guest room was shut tight.

She swore she left it open before she left earlier. She swears- but she decides to shrug it off- Sakura wasn’t scared of ghosts anyways, she’d even became one a couple of times (a gay zombie. Thank you Crow’s Blood). She opens her phone and taps Naver for no clear reason, and she finds the trending article rather inticing, as it was an article about Irene Bae of Red Velvet, who apparently just purchased a home worth about 99 thousand won.

Exactly the same as her home right now.

Oh Irene. Over the years they may or may not have exchanged about less than 20 words. Sakura was rather close to all her Red Velvet unnies (courtesy of the Chae-Seul Collab of 2022) but she still called Irene ‘sunbaenim’.

Sakura sighs as she moved her thumb to flick the screen to the messaging platform. As she does this, a sudden sound came from the living room- followed by a loud crash quickly followed by some muttering and even a few curses.

5 seconds into moving in and she was already being robbed.

Before Sakura did anything, she found the need to criticise the robber— they were making an awful lot ruckus for someone that was supposed to be discreet. Thus Sakura, wanting to shut the robber up (and perhaps give them some tips) quickly rushed to the bedside table and pulled out a switchblade she kept for emergencies, running out to where a literal crash was now audible. Sakura couldn’t believe it— how bad was the security here? How could such a loser of a thief steal from this house?! A series of complaints were definitely going to be filed.

Sakura stomped to the kitchen, and she was more than surprised to see who was ‘robbing’ her new home.

“Irene sunbaenim?” Sakura questions, eyes going so wide you’d think they’d pop out of their sockets.

“Sakura-ssi?” The older woman was crouched (or maybe she fell down?) by the fridge, groceries scattered all over the floor.

“What are you doing here?” Sakura questioned, very very confused.

“I live here!” Irene retaliated, and Sakura didn’t have the brain power to process the entire situation.

“No- I live here,” Sakura tries to explain, but it seems like Irene is equally as confused.

“Well- I live here too!” Irene says, and Sakura can only blink- because how the hell did she not realise she was going to get a housemate who just happened to be Irene freaking Bae?!

“So we’re housemates now?” Sakura questions, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yeah, definitely,” Irene agrees at light speed, and they just blink at each other- because what the ?

“Okay!” Sakura says, nodding at the sudden agreement.

“Okay!” Irene also agrees, and Sakura’s thoughts shoot from oh my god i’m living with Bae Irene to how the am I going to live with Bae Irene?!

Sakura’s mind then drifts to how on her they ended up buying the same house- but then Sakura remembers—

She bought this house from Chaeyeon.

“Did Seulgi sell you this house?” Sakura asks, and Irene looks shocked, like it wasn’t a popularly known fact.

“Yeah,”

Oh my ing god.

——

“Seulgi unnie,” Chaeyeon says, Seulgi flipping the channels on the TV right next to her, the bear-like dancer squinting at the TV as if it were miles away.

“Yeah?”

“How do we get Irene and Sakura to confess to each other?”