A/N: y'all, I'm so sorry for the very long wait! 🙏 life's been hard plus you know.. what's been happening lately for us as WIZ*ONEs. anyways, I had half of this chapter written since about 3 weeks ago and I thought I might as well finish it in time for Sakura's birthday. also, I might end this on the next chapter, but I can't say when! 🙈 thanks for your patience and for liking my story. 💕

“Why did you recommend the ROG Zephyrus G14?!!” Sakura suddenly snapped at Eunbi as soon as they both took seats across each other, now inside the restaurant for lunch.

“I recently got one so, why not?” Eunbi nonchalantly retorts.

Sakura scoffs. “For one, it’s obviously pricey! And frankly, Chaeyeon doesn’t need a gaming laptop. She only needed one to continue with her online English lessons.. Sighs. Gosh, you seriously do not know her.” Shaking her head and crossing her arms to express her disapproval.

“Well, you said you would help her, and I bumped into both of you finding out that you’ve been window shopping for two hours, and you haven’t bought one at all!”

About half an hour before...

“So, I thought Sakura accompanied you today to buy a new laptop.. but It seems you haven’t bought one yet?” Eunbi asks Chaeyeon.

“Yeah, but Saku-chan hasn’t found the right one.”

Sakura teasingly shrugs at Eunbi. But her rival smiles back at her, and uses this to her advantage.

“Oh really? I recently bought one myself, the ROG Zephyrus G14? It’s great and I highly recommend it.”

“Ya!” Sakura, the self-confessed computer nerd, rebuts. While Eunbi being the eldest, mouths back her reaction, feeling disrespected. So, Sakura immediately corrects herself, “Yaas! Zephyrus G14 does have great specs.” Scratching her head at her offense.

“Alright, then! Let’s walk back quickly and get that one, so we don’t have to rush eating our lunch later.” Chaeyeon smiles brightly as she looks at both of her friends.

“Still! Hmp! You ruined my plan!” Sakura pouts and glares.

“Your plan of spending more time with her? Ha!”

Sakura can’t do anything but make displeased faces, and both of them fall silent, as they wait for Chaeyeon to come back from the washroom.

Some more minutes passed and someone soon noticed them and approached their table, asking whether they were finally ready to take their orders.

Eunbi promptly answers, “Sorry, um.. Peers at the nameplate. Michelle? Yes.. um, though we planned to have some malatang today, our friend has not arrived yet.” The staff bowed in understanding, and left them again in awkward silence.

Sakura realizes something and lets her curiosity take over just so she would stop feeling the awkward air, and asks Eunbi, “Zephyrus is so expensive. How did you even afford that?”

“Three years of saving up and two more years worth of incentives.”

“Okay… I’m amazed, though..” Eunbi’s eyes darted swiftly over to Sakura, surprised over her remark.

But Sakura seems to have read her expression well, so she urgently continues speaking, “I mean, Chaeyeon just bought one irregardless of the price.”

“Maybe she has that much savings?”

“Eh?.. But it wasn’t long since Chaeyeon started working..?” It sounds like a question, but that was Sakura rhetorically pointing out how questionable Eunbi’s careless assumption was.

Eunbi soon discerns how rash her conclusion was, so she resorts to childishly annoying Sakura instead. “And I thought until now you really couldn’t pronounce Chaeyeon’s name correctly?”

“That’s because I reserved Jjaeyeon for Chaeyeon only. And the fact that she has never once corrected me about it means she must like it so much.” Sakura smirks.

It was Eunbi now who was making faces, annoyed more at how she was supposed to irk Sakura, yet it backfired.

Finally, Chaeyeon arrives at the restaurant painting bright smiles on her friends’ faces, completely unaware of the previous tension that surrounded them.

“Hey, I’m sorry for taking so long…” Chaeyeon, for a moment, catches her breath, then continues to ramble on. “It just... It happens so often now. Sometimes, I feel like I’m actually waiting for her to show up..” She takes her seat, and her friends unconsciously gulp as they nervously wait for her to continue speaking. She looks at both Eunbi and Sakura, and eventually notices their puzzled faces.

“I bumped into Kwangbae on my way back!”

“Kwangbae?” Both Eunbi and Sakura ask, but they look at each other's eyes, trying to confirm whether the name sounds familiar to the other.

“Oh! Right!” Chaeyeon laughs as she remembers. “CEO Kang!”

"She has a nickname?"

"Duh? Everyone has.. like how I call her, Jjaeyeon and she calls me, Saku-chan." Grinning widely.

"Yeah! So anyways, it turns out CEO Kang is friends with Malabuki's owner. She called her on the spot when we met, and said we could order anything we want from Michelle, the manager."

“Wow.” Sakura whispers out in daze, shocked at the possibility of even getting free take-outs. She unconsciously distributes the menus to both Eunbi and Chaeyeon after grabbing one for herself. Then starts quietly and carefully scanning each of its pages.

“Yay! Free food!" Eunbi claps her hands. "But you do know what this means, right, Chae?” Again, she uses this situation to her advantage.

“What is it, unnie?”

“Well..” Eunbi tucks the strands of her hair behind her ears, and puts on a mischievous smile. “It means, you still owe me that meal.”

Chaeyeon laughs. “Sure, unnie. No problem! Let’s just set another date.”

“Michelle!” Sakura loudly blurts out and raises her hand to call the manager's attention, and that successfully startled her companions and diverted theirs too. Consequently, Eunbi and Chaeyeon abruptly opened the menus in front of them.

About halfway through their meal, Sakura remembers something, "By the way, Jjaeyeon, what was that something you wanted to talk to us about? Did it have anything to do with our conversation earlier, before we were interrupted?"

Eunbi just rolls her eyes as Sakura emphasized the last word. She didn't care about how Sakura felt. What she was sure of was she came at the right moment. She got the opportunity and she grabbed (stole) it. So Eunbi sips on a spoonful of malatang stew, completely unfazed.

"Oh, right! Thanks for the reminder, Saku-chan. I don't really know how to start, but… Are you guys dating right now?"

In shock, both Eunbi and Sakura suddenly choke on the malatang stew, and they start to cough, immediately worrying Chaeyeon.

"Oh my, are you guys fine?" Almost standing upright, checking if there's an emergency.

"No, no!" Sakura frantically waves her hand to stop Chaeyeon's panic. "It's just.. Cough! the spice–capsaicin.. Cough! probably kicking in."

Eunbi clears , "But were you referring to both of us? Like us?" She points to her then Sakura in clarification.

"No, but.." Chaeyeon's eyes narrow, "Are you..?"

"HAHAHA!" Eunbi cackles. "Of course not!"

Sakura laughs at the absurdity, but her mind quickly sets this conversation on a track that could benefit her later. "But that doesn't mean dating between coworkers is prohibited at ENOZI. I mean, look at 2Kim