Seulgi is still sobbing, face down on the kitchen counter.

Joohyun is trying to wash one of the fifteen glasses they somehow went through in their near-one-hour detour to open yet another bottle of alcoholic beverage. She looks smug, probably for an unrelated reason since the washing is not going well at all, and she really shouldn’t be doing that while drunk; but who in their right mind is going to tell her that?

“You really shouldn’t be doing that while drunk.”

Kim Yerim, that’s who.

“Yah. Are you gonna do it? No? Then leave me alone.” The thin, fragile glass almost slips from her grip, but there’s a reason Bae Joohyun is known for never sporting a bag, and that reason is the fact that she can clutch approximately 87 objects in one tiny hand. A squeal still comes out though, and Yerim snorts at her suffering. This kid… “Why do you look so happy? I won the bet.”

“No reason.” Yerim just laughs again, seeking the support of the kitchen counter but only finding Seulgi’s back. The alcohol had gotten her pretty drowsy but the energy rush she just got kind of makes up for it. At least in part. A part, however, which does not include her legs. And so she leans heavily on Seulgi, who whines but otherwise doesn’t protest. “Great job though, unnie. You really nailed it with the deco.”

Great job, unnie?

“Why are you complimenting me.” Joohyun recognizes that lilt in Yerim’s voice. The weird I’m-mocking-you-but-I-also-kinda-mean-it tone when she gives praise—which Joohyun will never admit is part of her own methods and that’s why she can spot it from a mile away. But regardless, “I don’t like this.” 

Great JOB, unnie~ 

What the hell.

I mean, it’s not that Joohyun isn’t aware that she did do a great job. When Yerim came to over how she ‘can’t help being all over Seulgi-unnie’ a few days ago, she ended up betting against the youngest that she could not only, in fact, ‘help’ herself very well thank you very much, but also that the ones who couldn’t really ‘help themselves’ from being all over each other were Sooyoung and Seungwan.

And after getting them to sit under the mistletoe she so painstakingly put up on the window frame, her victory was set. Strangely, however, Yerim’s reaction was not that of a loser. 

“Yerimieeeee.” In a muffled voice, Seulgi really extends that ‘e’; and for a second it seems like she extends it so far, she forgets whatever it was she was going to say. She is no longer crying, it seems, but the love affair between her face and the cold granite of the counter still persists. A true romantic. “Here.” She digs for something in her pockets and shoves it back towards Yerim, her elbow bending in a probably impossible angle.

Oh, so this is why Yerim has been on the verge of cackling like a madwoman this entire time.

“What’s th—” Joohyun’s eyes go huge when she discerns the thickness of the stack of bills Seulgi just handed Yerim. “What the hell is this?” Finally, for the good of all and the general happiness of the Nation, she gives up on the glasses, marching towards her juniors with threatening stomps that aren’t actually so threatening because she is very small. In the blink of an eye, she snatches the money from Yerim’s hand, slapping her and scoffing indignantly after counting the bills. “This is five times the amount you owe me!”  

Seulgi, even in her state, picks up the high pitch of incredulity in Joohyun’s voice, and instinctively puts her own mediator tone to work, pawing uselessly at Joohyun’s arm. 

“Don’t worry, Joohyunnie. We just made a silly bet.”

Oh, but Joohyunnie very much worries. She worries so much she’s burning Yerim with her stare right now. There’s a grin on Joohyun’s face—a kind of grin that would make you recall that one nature documentary you watched, where the monotone voice-over told you that when animals show their teeth, they’re not smiling at you. They’re telling you ‘I can—and I will—maul you to death, so don’t you dare do whatever the hell you were thinking of doing.’ 

Yerim, obviously, cracks up at Joohyun and her grin. Because she’s Kim Yerim and she’s not fearless, but her fear will never be bigger than her irreverence.

“What is this?!” Joohyun questions, while Yerim takes the money back and counts a fifth to give back to the eldest, who is further enraged by the now visual representation of how Yerim bamboozled her. “Look at how little money this is!” She turns to Seulgi, whose face’s relationship ended with the kitchen counter, and now a pained expression is its best friend. “Yah, why did you bet so much?” 

“I was too confident.” Seulgi laughs, breathless, then holds her head in her hands as if she just realized she lost the bet and, simultaneously, that Santa isn’t real. “It’s really not a big deal, unnie. Yerimie isn’t extorting me or anything like that.” There’s a strange desperation amidst her laughs that doesn’t really match with her words. “She won fair and square… The failure was… E-entirely mine…”

Joohyun has no idea why Seulgi is being so dramatic, but she knows exactly why Yerim’s face is about to split from grinning too hard. And since those two things are most definitely related to one another, she makes an educated guess.

“Oh but she is, Seulgi-ah. She is extorting you! She’s extorting both of us!” 

She starts chasing Yerim around the counter, at levels of speed reserved to the fastest sloths in the world, only.

“It’s not—” Yerim has to stop to laugh, and also to heave a little bit, since apparently the fastest sloths in the world are still a little bit too fast for her. She’s drunk, give her a break. “It’s not my fault you guys are dumb! All four of you!”

“Yah, Yerim-ah, that’s mean.” Seulgi grumbles. “Seungwannie got that one award for being real good at school. And Sooyoungie wanted to be a teacher and all.” She states matter-of-factly, pathetically straightening her back to look more composed. “They’re smart.”

“That checks out. You and Joohyun-unnie are definitely the dumber ones.”

“YAH, KIM YERIM!” Joohyun tries to grapple Yerim. However, she is already so tired from the approximate three laps around the counter and so drunk from the approximate no-one-actually-kept-count champagne bottles that she kind of just. Tangles her arms on nothing, with Yerim out of reach. 

Yerim, who currently can’t decide if she’ll breathe or laugh and likely die after from lack of oxygenation to her brain.

“Give back Seulgi’s money. This bet was not fair.” Joohyun demands, sitting next to Seulgi.

“Are you giving back your share of Seulgi’s money?” Yerim retorts, and when Joohyun pretends she didn’t hear any of it, she presses further. “Do you even know what my bet was with her?”  

“I—” Right. She doesn’t really know. “I know it has something to do with Seungwan and Sooyoung too!”

“How astute, unnie. Congratulations.”

“Kim Yerim I swear—”

“‘Too’?” 

Seulgi’s confused expression when she asks is too cute; and when Joohyun catches it, she immediately makes sure to stop catching it so she can keep being mad. Which is already difficult on regular days, since watching Seulgi—watching over Seulgi—is just what Joohyun does. Whenever Seulgi is doing something, Joohyun can’t help but look at her. Even if ‘something’ is simply ‘not understanding what’s going on at all’. Even if it’s just ‘suddenly gasping as if she just figured out a mystery akin to the secrets of the universe’. 

“Did you bet they were going to kiss tonight, unnie?” Her monolid eyes shift from side to side when she says ‘kiss’, and Joohyun scoffs instinctively; she doesn’t even know why she’s scoffing, or why either of them are acting like kissing is way more obscene than it actually is.

“Did she, I wonder~” Yerim just sounds more entertained by the second, and Joohyun does not like where this is going. It’s like that one song, the one Seungwan showed her once—how does it go again? ‘Regrets collect’?

“Did you bet they were not, Seulgi-ah?” Joohyun deflects, deciding to ignore Yerim from now on. It will obviously fail, but for a moment she pretends it won’t. And so she focuses on Seulgi, but immediately realises that’s a really bad idea because Seulgi looks cute and confused and her cheeks are red and are you cracking your knuckles again, Kang Seulgi.

“Heh… Heh heh heh…” She’s already stammering before Joohyun grabs at her hands so she will cease the knuckle-cracking at once. Which she does. For once. And then immediately starts again. “Not... exactly…”

“You two are literally so stupid. You’re killing me. You’re killing your dongsaeng.”

“What!?” And so Joohyun fails to ignore Yerim, as predicted. “What!”

“You know what you bet, and you know what you bet.” Yerim says, pointing at each of them in turn. “You two bet against the same person. And one won, and the other didn’t. Because Seungwan-unnie and Sooyoung-unnie kissed.” When her seniors say nothing, leaning forward on the counter and staring at her with doubtful eyes—not even realizing that while they were staring their heads somehow grew closer together as if they’re attracted by magnets—, Yerim sighs. Then laughs. Then sighs again. “I guess it is difficult, after all.”

With her more antiquated clothes making her look like an actual marriage counselor—and not the one she just pretends to be sometimes for those two—, she sits across from them, and starts explaining her intricate plan like she’s some sort of Anime villain.

“I was tired of the four of you being knuckle-heads, just dancing around each other all the time. So I decided that I was gonna do something about it.” She points at Seulgi. “If getting you two to kiss was the only objective, it would have been easy to bet with Joohyun-unnie because she would just go and immediately kiss you, even if she didn’t like you as much as she does, because she has to win. But that wouldn’t solve Seungwan-unnie and Sooyoung-unnie, and I would also lose money. So my plan had to get a little more complicated to account for everything.” 

“That makes sense. Joohyun-unnie is very competitive.” Seulgi states, like she’s in a showcase of why she is also known as the Bae Joohyun Official Encyclopedia, which earns a smug smirk from Joohyun and prompts Yerim to go through all five stages of grief at once, since neither of them seem to have realized any implications of what Yerim just said.

“Anyway. There’s many easy ways I could have gotten my money, but I needed a plan to get Seungwan-unnie and Sooyoung-unnie together. Coming up with a plan though, and then executing this plan, is a lot of work. And I got tired just from thinking of thinking about it. So then I thought, ‘if I somehow get Joohyun-unnie invested in making them kiss, then she can come up with the plan AND execute it, while I don’t have to do anything.’”

Joohyun scoffs again, loudly, with all the strength her lungs can muster. “You... ” She knew Yerim was a world class entrepreneur and couldn’t stop thinking about that sweet money, but that didn’t mean she had free reign to just take advantage of Joohyun for her schemes like this. “You used me! You little…” She tries to slap Yerim again, but the kitchen stools they’re sitting on aren’t very stable and so she wobbles and screeches until Seulgi catches her. She holds onto Seulgi for dear life, and Seulgi goes back to that sing-song tone while whispering calming words near her ear. It's a rather common sight if you have lived with them for as long as Yerim has. She wants to gag. God, they’re insufferable.

“Moving on,” Yerim continues, looking at Joohyun and trying to ignore how they still didn’t let go of each other. “I convinced you to bet Seungwan-unnie and Sooyoung-unnie would kiss first, which would guarantee that not only it happened, but also that you would stop making your moves on Seulgi-unnie. And then I convinced her—" She points at Seulgi.  "—to bet she was kissing you first; after hyping her up a lot, of course, which made her bet a lot of money. But you see, I knew she wouldn’t do it.”

“I was going to do it!” Seulgi complains, dramatically resting her forehead on Joohyun’s shoulder. “I really was, it’s just...”

“You weren’t, Seulgi-unnie, for the same reason that you still hadn’t before I set this whole thing up. You’re too much of a romantic. Everything has to be inside your perfect movie-like conditions before you can act. And don’t you laugh, Joohyun-unnie, because I got you figured out too.” Yerim’s voice has no anger in it—it sounds like she’s about to burst out in laughter, truly—but Joohyun is still shocked into silence. Seulgi, however, who had been shocked into silence first, can’t help a small giggle. “You are too proud. You’d never open up about your feelings and risk making yourself vulnerable if Seulgi-unnie didn’t do it first. And if having to watch both of you be like this for years wasn’t enough, I still have Seungwan-unnie, who overthinks too much and worries more about what others want than what about she wants; and Sooyoung-unnie, who is too insecure and in fear that she’s the only one who cares, because she doesn’t think she’s enough to be the one who’s cared for. And you’d all just be here, in this stalemate, forever, if I didn’t do anything about it!”

Yerim doesn’t notice that she’s standing up, with her hair all dishevelled, kind of a crazy glint in her eyes. Joohyun and Seulgi are slightly terrified.

“Anyway,” She sits back down and goes on as if none of that rant just happened. “Joohyun-unnie comes up with the genius idea about the mistletoe, helps Seulgi-unnie decorate, Seulgi-unnie hates it but leaves it there anyway. We amost—” 

“I didn’t really hate it! It just looks kinda...” She grimaces, which nearly earns her a punch from Joohyun.

"Yah, Kang Seulgi! I worked hard on that!”

“We. Almost. Ruin it.” Yerim de-interrupts herself, with a slap to the counter at each pause. “But those two finally kiss; and I was not planning on revealing this whole story to you but I… Honestly have no idea why I did it. I just can’t stop running my mouth, I guess.” She pauses, sighing dreamily. “And now that you have all the information, I was hoping that you’d just. Get this over with. Or get this started with, I should say. But since you two always have to mess up my things...”

“Wait, what do you mean? Get what started?" Joohyun frowns.

“Really? I—" Yerim throws her hands up in surrender, scrambling back up on her feet with a sigh of disbelief. "You know what? Here. I don’t even want this anymore. You guys are so dumb you make me feel bad for taking it.” She throws Seulgi’s money back at her. “Okay, wait.” She grabs it again, separates approximately half, puts it in her bra, and then throws the rest back one more time. “I’m going to my room. And maybe, when you’re alone with each other and go into that weird zone you go to when you’re together, you’ll get it. Merry Christmas.”

And scene.

For Yerim, that is, because Joohyun and Seulgi are still in the kitchen.

Still dumbfounded by whatever this was.

Joohyun hides her face in her hands. Her head hurts. That Kim Yerim…

“Everything alright, unnie?” There’s a lilt of worry in Seulgi’s voice as she raises her head up from Joohyun’s shoulder.

“My head.” Joohyun says, simply. “Ugh, that Kim Yerim…! What was she talking about? What are we missing here?”

Joohyun uncovers her eyes and meets Seulgi's gaze. They exchange a knowing look, which would be very grating to watch for anyone else. What could Yerim possibly mean, they ask, while looking at each other like that. Honestly. 

“I just know I’m missing a lot of money, now. Even though she only took half of it.” Seulgi giggles, which prompts Joohyun to immediately do the same.

“Yah.” She weakly slaps Seulgi, who slaps her back with even less intent. Their own weird little ritual, one of the hundreds of ways they communicate beyond words.  “Why are you like this, Kang Seulgi?" Seulgi avoids her eyes but still faces her. "You could have easily won that bet.”

“I know.” She rubs unconsciously at the spot Joohyun hit her. “I guess Yerim was right. I kept looking for the right moment, but you were so busy all night making sure Seungwan and Sooyoung sat by your mistletoe.”

“Hm. That’s right.” A lazy smirk swims on Joohyun’s lips, and Seulgi doesn’t miss it. Joohyun also doesn’t miss the way Seulgi doesn’t miss it.

“Seungwan’s face when she saw your decoration was so funny.” Seulgi pauses, a loving expression forming on her face. It would have sent a jealous pang through Joohyun’s heart if it was about anyone else, but how can she be mad when she has a soft spot for Son Seungwan herself? “She looked like she was running a million possibilities in her head.”

“She definitely was. She had so many excuses ready when I first came to talk to her.” Joohyun clicks her tongue, suddenly frustrated. “That Park Sooyoung, though. Caught onto me so quickly. I don’t know if I would have managed to get around Seungwan’s avoidance if she didn’t help.”

“You two are terrifying when you work together, to be honest.” Seulgi snickers, which throws both of them into a fit of conspiratorial giggles. Again. “But I’m glad you did all of this. They were so happy.”

“Yah, wouldn’t you be more glad if you got to kiss me, though?” Joohyun pouts and Seulgi laughs, motioning her gaze away again; but Joohyun follows her line of sight with her head, leaning further into Seulgi’s space. “I’m serious. Yah, I’m serious!”

“You know I would, unnie.”

Joohyun does know, but the prospect of annoying Seulgi is too delightful to pass over.

“Do I? I don’t know anything. Do you even care about me, Kang Seulgi?” 

Joohyun just keeps getting more and more into Seulgi’s face, and the latter sighs good-naturedly at her grinning senior when she pokes at her nose. Again. Why does she keep doing this?

“Unnie...” She says with a small voice. She could ponder if Joohyun knows how much she affects Seulgi, being close like this; but she doesn't need to, because she knows Joohyun is very much aware.

“If you do care about me," Joohyun starts, and Seulgi is used to see her acting needy, demanding her attention. Or Seungwan’s, who’s less of a tease than her best friend. Even Sooyoung, sometimes, will find herself pampering her unnie in hopes that she’ll do the same, when asked for it. (She often doesn’t. And it makes Sooyoung crazy. But she keeps trying anyway.) It doesn’t come from a place of vulnerability, however; it’s more like indulgence. She knows they’ll always entertain her because she’s their favorite weirdo who acts like a five-year-old and laughs like a seventy-year-old. But this time, it’s not indulgence she wants.  There's only a fraction of a second of hesitation, and in it Seulgi can see it, hidden under the teasing; anticipation, nervousness. "Why don’t you kiss me now?”

Ah, there it is, Seulgi thinks. Her chance is finally here, and she can't miss it.

"I don't know, unnie. I'm feeling pretty sleepy already." She deadpans. Joohyun instantly looks so outraged that Seulgi can't help but smirk. 

She'd never miss a chance to Joohyun-unnie.

"Yah!” Joohyun punches her in the stomach, making her double over; but Joohyun is so close that Seulgi ends up with her face buried in the leader's neck.

Joohyun doesn’t even have time to freeze comically at the feeling of Seulgi’s warm face touching her skin, because the latter immediately—and unabashedly—inhales her scent like she suddenly turned into the vacuum cleaner Sooyoung got her for Christmas.

"Mmh.” She sniffs Joohyun once more and the intensity almost makes Joohyun laugh and push her away. But Seulgi’s hands quickly find hers and hold them in that awkward way only Seulgi knows how: long fingers encasing pale knuckles, so light you might think she’s just waiting for the opportunity to let go, as if she’d rather be doing anything else; but as her touch lingers, it becomes clear that she’s just being her thoughtful self, her careful hold on your hands as if she were holding your heart instead.  “You smell nice.” Her fingertips drag along the back of Joohyun’s hand, delicate as her breath on Joohyun’s neck. “Let’s stay like this for a bit.”

“Yah,” Joohyun complains, and yet doesn't move while Seulgi's breathing settles down into a slow rhythm, along with the soft caress on her knuckles—that soon ceases. As impatient as she can be, Joohyun allows this moment to last; and strangely, doesn't even need to will herself into doing so. It just has always been like this with Seulgi. How do the kids say it? World harsh and cold, Seulgi soft and warm? She’ll allow herself to enjoy the closeness and the warmth because it is winter, actually, and it is rare that they get to relish on each other’s presence like this, without feeling compelled to act like they have no idea how they even got to this point in the first place.

You see, Yerim might have been right about their obliviousness towards what she was trying to tell them, but she might have been surprised at how not oblivious they are in regards to each other. Even Kim Yerim herself is an avid enjoyer of mutual pining and missed connections when it comes to her romance novels; Seulgi and Joohyun are no different. The pretend denseness became a part of their dynamic as much as the lingering glances and the playful slaps and the moments of deep understanding, to the point they even forget they’re doing it on purpose sometimes. 

Dancing around each other is what Seulgi and Joohyun do best, after all. 

“Yah.” Joohyun calls once more, after a considerable amount of time. “Seulgi-ah.” She would indulge her beloved for a while longer—Seulgi also smells very nice and is in fact very warm—but these stools really aren’t that great and her lower back kind of hurts. She sighs. Age really catches up to you, huh. “Yah... Are you even listening...?”

“Shhh,” is all Seulgi gives her, releasing one of her hands to bring a fingertip over Joohyun’s lips. “Unnie.” When she gets up from Joohyun’s shoulder, she uses the same hand to cup Joohyun’s cheek. Her eyes are full of tenderness while she brings Joohyun closer to touch her forehead to Seulgi’s own and it's insane, really, how you can know someone for over a decade and still feel your breath hitch in your throat every time your eyes meet like this. Maybe this is why Joohyun was born with a near-comical ineptitude at following directions, she thinks, as Seulgi's thumb traces her cheekbone; to get lost in those eyes, in this want, and it doesn't matter if she can never find her way back because she's already home.

Joohyun's eyes shut involuntarily when she notices Seulgi doing the same.  Is it really, finally happening? Seulgi’s hand leaves her cheek and both of her arms snake across Joohyun’s neck and it’s happening. It’s happening! Her lower back still kind of hurts and it’s getting worse with Seulgi leaning all her weight on her like this but it’s fine, because it. IS. HAPPENING. 

I mean, it is happening, right? 

And if it is, why is it taking so long to happen? 

She doesn’t want to open her eyes and ruin the moment with her impatience but really. It should have been happening by now, if she’s not mistaken. So why isn’t it? 

She really, really doesn’t want to open her eyes, but has Seulgi been working out lately? Her noodle arms are starting to feel a bit too heavy. Which is alarming, since they’re noodle arms for BoA’s sake. 

“Seulgi-ah.” She tugs at Seulgi's shirt. No response. Joohyun pokes at her abs once, then twice for good measure. And then a third time because she can, so why the hell not.

Still, nothing happens.

She’ll have to open her eyes, won’t she.

Sigh. 

“Seulgi-ah,” she decides to call, one last time.

She doesn’t know what she was expecting as an answer, really. Maybe another surreptitiously whispered unnie; maybe a torrid love confession; maybe the kiss itself, at last. 

What she gets is none of those things. 

It's a low rumble, a slight vibration on the spot their foreheads connect.

Are you kidding me right now, Kang Seulgi. Was that a— 

SNORE.

This one was louder, rattling across Joohyun’s skull like she’s not Irene leader of Red Velvet, but Great Irene the cathedral bell, ringing heavily from its tower over a small catholic town in Southern Europe. 

"You're sleeping." It's not a question, but Joohyun opens her eyes to confirm it anyway. "Yep, you're sleeping." Seulgi snores again, and Joohyun snickers. She looks so cute. Always does, but especially right now. Joohyun’s sure she’ll start drooling at any second, but somehow that knowledge only makes her cuter. Joohyun wants to kiss her so badly, but she’ll wait. Of the many things Seulgi has taught her, the most important was patience. Joohyun might not be very good at it, even after repeat lessons, and it might frustrate her to no end to not be immediately good at things, to the point it makes her want to give up after the first try. But with Seulgi—Seulgi, her constant, whose smile faltered but never faded, who trained the longest and cried the hardest when it all seemed lost, whom Joohyun held when she couldn't cry anymore and  who held Joohyun when it was just the two of them left. Seulgi, who is still the same after all these years, who is still here after Joohyun's many mistakes and who will still be here, even when everything and everyone else is gone—, it's suddenly not so scary to try, to fail, to try again.

Patience never came easily to Joohyun, but as she half-carries, half-drags a half-asleep-and-at-least-three-quarters-still-drunk Seulgi towards her bed, she’s just glad that of out all of the things she has ever found difficult, loving Seulgi was never one of them.