“I give up.”

 

If it was something worrying, or something along the lines of gaming Eunbi quite frankly doesn’t understand (she won’t ever will; call her boomer at your own peril), Eunbi will raise her arms to the Heavens in triumph and shout a cry of glory as it yet another catastrophe evaded. 

 

But alas, it’s not, and so Eunbi is forced to become the leader before a woman-who-craves-peace. 

 

Our stressed, single-mom, leader approached Minjoo who is—sitting, slumped, on their dorm’s large couch. The oldest—but not necessarily the most responsible—of the 01 liner is occupying the black colored couch with her long limbs, sparing only so little for Yena who sits at the edges to read—how surprising—a book.

 

No ordinary book, mind you. It’s a book, gifted by none other than our lovable resident yet hermit-like gaming queen, Miyawaki Sakura. A book, once carefully wrapped in plain yellow wrapping but had Sakura’s signature drawing of ducks all around them, with a small card tucked in a particular page containing a short but meaningful message. Yena perhaps isn’t the most scholarly out of twelve of them, but she’s willing to read from time to time, preferring the distinctive scent of papers and dry inks rather than bright monitors that hurt her eyes.

 

“What is it?” She hears Yena mumbles through pursed lips, apparently still so into her reading, but she still is but a caring older sister to Minjoo, though responsible she is not.

 

“What am I giving up for or what reason do I give up?” Minjoo asks, raising her head a little before slamming it back to the couch. “Either way, I give up and that’s that.”

 

Yena and Eunbi shared a look. Both are aware of Minjoo’s nature of not giving up so quickly in life, or anything in general.

 

“Both, perhaps,” Eunbi answers her, sliding to sit near Minjoo’s head. It forced the frog-like visual to move her head to the older girl’s lap. “Something troubling you?”

 

Eunbi noticed how Minjoo opened only to close it again, then heaved a sigh so deep her whole body shuddered. She took a moment to cover her face with both of her palms. “It’s silly,” she mumbles to her hands, her voice a bit muffled.

 

Yena snorts, unamused. She shows signs of disinterest at Minjoo’s remorseful antics, but she sets away her book and moves position. “We’ll be the judge of that.”

 

Minjoo pulls her palms away from her face. She pouts. “I - I think Hitomi is mad at me and I don’t know why. I have a vague idea of why at first, but then my hypotheses are proved incorrect, repeatedly, and now I’m giving up.”

 

“...That but how did you reach that conclusion?” The leader asks her again with a confused, yet careful voice, hoping it would suffice for Minjoo to spill all of the tea required for them to solve this... mystery . 

 

Fortunately, it worked.

 

Minjoo pushes her head off Eunbi’s lap to sit properly, her back straight against the backrest with a renewed vigor; pleased that Eunbi isn’t brushing her off. “For one,” she exaggeratedly begins, swiveling wildly to Eunbi’s direction. “Hitomi is suddenly ship-able with everyone but me. But me !” She wails, throwing her hands up in the air with all of her pent-up frustration exploded after a particularly savage growling. “And I tell you! This always happens when I somehow pissed her off!”

 

A heavy pause befalls them as both of the older girls’ minds are struggling to grasp the ridiculousness of Minjoo’s statement. Unfortunately, Minjoo doesn’t realize this and thinks that the two of them aren’t listening.

 

“Well?” She intones snidely, impatient as she crossed her arms against her chest.

 

Another exchanged looks, still clueless and… just so done . Words failed to form in Yena’s mouth, but luckily Eunbi comes to the rescue. “Are you sure this is not your paranoia speaking?” She asks, a slight frown starting to settle.

 

“No!”

 

“Paranoia,” Yena diagnosed, shaking her head, silently thankful that her voice returned at such admirably perfect timing. “Look, I get that crazy s happen whenever we somehow annoy Hitomi, but are you sure Hitomi being shippable with everyone else but you is the infamous Hii-Karma?”

 

“Yes!” Came the irate reply, accompanied by another exaggerating huff that puts Yena’s melodrama to shame. Eunbi’s subtle frown turns deep as Minjoo suddenly leans forward, her finger rubbing her chin in a very contemplative manner. “Or rather, it’s a plot. A plot by evil, wretched beings, hell-bent on ship wars and ensurement of my misery, who doesn’t want mintomi to sail—”

 

“Now you’re just being dramatic,” Yena cuts her ranting abruptly, feeling her head spin at the maddening theory Minjoo spitted. Is this how everyone feels daily whenever she says something stupid? She really needs to treat everyone better from now on, assuming she has sufficient brain cells to remember. 

 

Minjoo’s head snaps towards Yena in an instant, glowering. Her hands are clasped on Yena’s shoulders in a flash before Eunbi can even blink, gripping Yena’s thin shoulders in a vice-like grip. “It’s a plot!” She insisted, shaking Yena’s body crazedly.

 

“Totally a plot!” Eunbi interrupted nervously with a scream, taking Minjoo by her armpits and pried her off from Yena before Minjoo could destroy the duck’s countable remaining brain cells.  

 

---

 

“I think Minjoo is avoiding me.”

 

Yujin’s ears perked up at the briefest mention of her lovely unnie’s name, turning away from her phone to give Hitomi a look that demanded an explanation.

 

Hitomi has her eyes closed as she rests against the backrest, so she’s not aware of the look Yujin is giving her. She idly plays with Yujin’s hair, patting the younger’s crown affectionately. “Yep, Minjoo is avoiding me,” She expels a tired sigh as she repeats. Her fingers, previously buried between Yujin’s locks, are now messaging her suddenly throbbing temples. “I don’t recall any events that warranted her avoidance.”

 

Yujin pouts. She admires how Hitomi’s vocabulary has improved but can’t help feeling dejected that it’s used for a pretty sad topic. Her cute unnie is overthinking again. She always does if it’s about Minjoo. 

 

And no, Yujin is not jealous.

 

“She’s not avoiding you, unnie.”

 

Hitomi cracked an eye open. From there, Yujin can see that Hitomi is tired—both emotionally and physically, but not to a degree where she’s overly bothered and affects her daily life. It’s more like a worm crawling on the back of her mind. Painless, but it’s still there. She can’t say it’s not annoying.

 

Is that why Hitomi is so irritable lately? With the only being who is brave enough to annoy the daylights of her is their Kang-chan, who has the power of God, Anime, and Cakes on her side? Most probably. 

 

“I doubt that.”

 

It’s almost comedic, because, at the same time, Kim Minjoo walked in, screaming something about her misplaced phone. She stopped dead in her tracks the moment she set her eyes on Hitomi and Yujin, her eyes slightly narrowing at the two’s intimate position.

 

Yujin quickly gets up; two years of knowing the danger of “it’s always the silent ones” honed her survival instinct admirably well. She only needed a split second of identification before she knew she’s ed up. She’s just not fast enough to create enough distance between Hitomi and herself.

 

Hitomi’s eyes perked up, her eyes alight with sudden brightness that caught Yujin off-guard. “Good evening!” She says, accompanied by flurries of fingers as she waved her arms at Minjoo’s direction. Yujin can almost smell the nervousness oozing from her movement, but it might be because she can smell emotions .

 

Chaewon thinks it’s weird. Really, it’s not. It’s just one of Yujin-things.

 

Slowly, she turns her attention to Minjoo, watching how her favorite unnie’s expression contorts to a very unreadable expression. She can see the danger behind those enigmatic eyes. 

 

Yujin turns back to Hitomi, feeling a bit impressed at Hitomi’s response. The mochi-cheeked girl stays unfazed—or perhaps she’s unaware of the danger lurking behind Minjoo’s passivity? Hitomi is a highly observant and sensitive person, but she can be so denser than a brick that it’s not even funny. Especially when it comes to a certain frog.

 

Yujin’s eyes are quick to found Minjoo again and—what the .

 

She had expected Hell! Fury! Madness! Terror! Anger and such! Mangled figures and burnt corpses! Not… Not…

 

“Good evening,” Minjoo greeted back, her expression happy and light, her voice gentle and sweet, just like honey. Gone are the dangerous death hounds howling behind her, snapping their jaws, hungry for blood—Yujin’s blood; replaced by fluffy, friendly, full of love golden retriever pups with the only hunger they have is the desperation of their owner’s love.

 

Yujin inched away. Somehow those affection-craving pups are more dangerous than ravenous death hounds. Death by hug-suffocation sounds more painful than mauling, to be honest. So unmanly .

 

Hitomi pats the space beside her, beaming a slightly nervous smile at Minjoo, who is still radiating happiness to a very concerning degree. “Come here,” she says, wondering a little why Yujin immediately jumps off from her original space and settles herself on the floor. Looking very shaken, too.

 

Like a very obedient puppy, Minjoo happily skips over to Hitomi’s side, almost tripping her feet on Yujin’s long pair of lower limbs as she jumps to the couch. 

 

Seriously, Yujin thinks Minjoo suits the nickname “puppy” more. She acts like it around Hitomi.

 

“I miss you,” the visual suddenly whispers, pouting and whining as she dips her face on the crook of Hitomi’s neck. Hitomi gulps audibly, her arms flying up to hold Minjoo by her shoulders, stopping the older girl from burying her face there. 

 

“I miss you too,” Hitomi admits, blushing furiously herself. Her flushed face becomes more apparent as Minjoo parts her lips, letting her sharp teeth grind against Hitomi's flushing skin. “But don’t do that here ! Yujin is—”

 

“Not here!” Yujin shouts across the room, half-way inside Yuri-Nako’s shared room. The door slams close, and the couple can hear the annoyed scream coming from the remaining 01 liner.

 

Minjoo turns her attention back to Hitomi, giving the younger a very remorseful look that shakes Hitomi to the core, making her forget Minjoo's previous inappropriate behavior around children.

 

“Did I annoy you?” Minjoo asks, very pityingly. Minjoo nudges forward again, aiming her lips to Hitomi’s but once again it misses her target as Hitomi palms before shoving her gently away.

 

Minjoo reels back dramatically, clutching her chest as if in great pain. “This is the nth time you’ve rejected my affections—”

 

“Because we’re in the public scrutiny, Eunbi unnie’s watchful eyes, and the minors’ active zone,” Hitomi cuts off, her eyes rolling playfully to the side when Minjoo’s theatrics continues without any pause. 

 

“The cruelty of fate knows no bounds,” the other girl dramatically laments, draping herself all over an amused Hitomi. Again, the younger girl shoves her away, but Minjoo lays stubbornly on top of her.

 

The blonde huffs, poking on the spots she knows Minjoo is very ticklish and there she has it, Minjoo squirming away, barking out her giggles like a puppy.

 

Once the giggles subsided, Minjoo comes back to her side, with still that remorseful puppy-look on her face. It doesn’t really work this time, so Minjoo just sighs and immediately cuts to the chase.

 

“Have I somehow annoyed you?” She asks again, but she makes sure her expression isn’t that expressive lest Hitomi is going to evade the question just like she usually does. “You’ve been avoiding me lately. Not giving me any kiss, not even the briefest hug!”

 

Hitomi mulls over her words, her eyebrows raised high as she realizes that Minjoo is having the same concern as herself.  “That’s not true,” she says shyly as she nibbles her lower lip. “You annoy me sometimes, but never to a degree I’ll lay off my affections from you.”

 

Minjoo’s sad gaze visibly lightens a bit. “Then why?”

 

“I thought you were avoiding me,” Hitomi admits. “You’re so busy lately and your door was always locked whenever I went there.”

 

It takes longer for Minjoo to piece it together. “Ah, so that’s why,” Minjoo murmurs, relief washing over her. “I’m sorry, Hii. Next time, just say it’s you and I’ll be sure to open it for you.”

 

“I don’t want to disturb your rest.”

 

“Nonsense. I rest even better with you in my arms,” Minjoo responds without missing a beat. She beams her a smile as she scoots closer. “Though I don’t mind if I become the little spoon, sometimes. You’re so adorable whenever you rub your face to my back.”

 

Hitomi blushes furiously. “Y-Yah…”

 

“It’s true!” Minjoo insists, grinning widely as she says so. “Since you’re so cute, can I kiss you?” She asks, once again making Hitomi grow weak with that intense loving gaze. “A little peck, just enough to make my dreary day?”

 

Hitomi slowly leans forward, her puff of breath lightly fanning Minjoo’s lips, making the older girl shiver a little. Hitomi tilts her head a little to the side, her eyes fixed upon Minjoo’s slightly pursed lips. Yet before Minjoo can lean down to capture her lips, Hitomi leans back again, dismayed at the sudden thought occurring in her mind.

 

“I can almost guess we’ll end up making out in the living room. And traumatizing the kids again.”

 

Genuinely disappointed, Minjoo leans back to the backrest, huffing at yet another failed attempt. “Right, cut back the false promises. Got it. But still!” Minjoo purses her lips again. “I still need a kiss! And maybe a little,” Minjoo wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, “ action after so long wouldn’t hurt.”

 

The smile on Hitomi’s face is a little fixed. “Kids,” she reminds her, and Minjoo is back on throwing tantrums. 

 

Nothing a little peck couldn’t handle.