“Just for the record, I think this is a terrible idea and we really shouldn’t be doing this.”

A snort. “Yewon-ah, you were the one who brought up the issue in the first place, don’t tell me you aren’t interested in the outcome.” SinB’s voice was a bored drawl.

“You even have a little whiteboard and everything!” Sprawled on the sofa, Eunha grinned and teased their youngest, who bit her lip.

“Well, if we’re going to do something it has to be done right.”

“Are you two bullying Yewon again?” Sowon emerged from the kitchen area bearing snacks, absently swatting SinB’s questing hand away before setting the plate down on the table. 

“Unnie!!” Umji whined, scampering forward to tug at the oldest’s sleeve. “They’re being mean.”

“Wow, way to turn on us like that.” SinB sulked as she stalked back to the sofa, rolling a lazy Eunha off to one side to make space for herself. “C’mon unnie I know you’re not that fat gimme some room.”

“Who are you calling fat?!”

“Kids…” Sowon rolled her eyes while petting Umji on the head distractedly, like she was soothing her own puppy. “We gotta get this done quick, so quit wasting time.”

“Of course.”

“Fine…”

“Let Operation Yeju begin!”

Everyone stared at Eunha, who had shifted from lying down on the sofa to being halfway sprawled over SinB, who had commandeered the other half. The tiniest member shrugged.

“What? We all know the ship names, I know we all lurk online.”

 Sowon coughed. “Well, still.” SinB then interjected, throwing her hands up in disgust.

“I mean it’s been six years and they’re still not a thing? How? Especially with all the kissing??”

“Tell me about it, I’m the one living with them now. They have not gotten any better, just so you know.” Umji informed them with a sigh. The maknae had been the one to bring up the matter to the rest of the group in the first place.

Yerin and Yuju were, obviously, missing from this impromptu meeting. It was a time honored tradition that they hold discussions within the group whenever there was any kind of disagreement or misunderstanding between any one of them, since they all believed that it was best to solve any issues through communication before it became an actual problem. 

The reason the pair wasn’t present was probably because they were the problem, or rather, Umji felt like Something Had To Be Done before she expired from all the unresolved between her two dormmates.

“We could have just called them here and made them kiss,” was Sowon’s not very serious suggestion.

“They’ve been kissing for years and they still haven’t figured it out,” was Eunha’s retort.

“We can’t gather six people in the apartment anyway, pandemic rules.” Was SinB’s reply, which drew a variety of disbelieving expressions from her group mates. “What?”

Umji coughed. “Well, I just called the meeting because they’re driving me nuts since we’re all stuck inside together most of the time now.” The maknae sighed. 

“It would be so much easier if they realized what they were doing but they don’t.” Umji looked aggrieved. “They’re just so casually touchy with each other it’s like I don’t exist!”

Sowon rapped on the table with a knuckle to get everyone’s attention.

“Look, are we really sure they have feelings for each other though?” The other three stared at their leader with various degrees of judgemental derision, and the oldest shrugged noncommittally.

“Well I had to ask. We all know how Yerin is like,” everyone chuckles a little at this. Sowon looks at SinB.

“You’re the closest to her, what do you think?”

Witness 1, aka SinB, rolls her eyes.

“I don’t think Yerin-unnie realizes how much she cares about Yuju-unnie.” The sharp-tongued girl paused, then backtracked a little on her statement. “Actually I think she does know, but she doesn’t want to admit it to herself.” SinB stuck out her tongue, rolling her eyes dramatically.

“You know how she always takes care of all of us, but she’ll drop everything if Yuju-unnie needs something.” The main dancer scowled. “It’s actually kind of annoying sometimes.”

“Are you sure you aren’t just jealous?” Eunha comments lazily next to her. SinB punches the lead vocal in the shoulder, a sulky expression on her face.

“It’s not like that!”

“Yes yes we all know how much you like being babied, you big baby.” Sowon snickered from her seat at the table, and if not for Eunha basically being halfway on top of SinB at the moment, the younger girl would absolutely have sprung up to fight her leader. 

Umji tittered quietly next to Sowon. She knew very well how SinB enjoyed being paid attention to, even if she would never admit it. Next to her, Sowon glanced over to where Eunha was still halfheartedly wrestling with SinB on the couch.

“What about Yuju though?”

It was clearly directed at Eunha, who paused to think about it. SinB made a few grumbling noises, but shifted her position to let Eunha lean more comfortably on her.

“Yuju’s a fool, so she obviously doesn’t know anything.” Eunha’s voice was drily sarcastic, and SinB snickered next to her. The lead vocal tapped her chin thoughtfully, straightening up a little.

“Well to be fair though, she’s always been a little slow with things. You know how she is.” Knowing laughs went around the group; they all knew each other’s little quirks by now. Eunha leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm.

“But you know, recently when she’s texting with me Yerin keeps coming up in the conversation for absolutely no reason.” Here, Eunha rolled her eyes. “We’d be discussing what goes well with pork stew and then suddenly she asks me about new desserts because she wants to try them with Yerin.” The bunny pouts indignantly.

“Some best friend she is, not even inviting me when there’s food involved.”

“Remember that time they went to get apple pie together for weeks and never told us about that little cafe near us?” SinB added with equal indignation, folding her arms with a huff. “They could have said something!”

“They did, well, Yuju-unnie did, but none of us responded the first time so…” Umji raised a hand awkwardly, remembering the brief mention in their group chat. But their group chat always moved very quickly, and if none of the rest latched on to something, topics came and went without notice. 

“Clearly, Yerin did notice, if they went together,” Sowon commented drily. The leader looks around the group. 

“Well, I didn’t think this would have been important, but I just got reminded of something Yerin said before…” The leader trailed off as three pairs of inquisitive eyes locked onto her.

“It was a few years ago, when we were still rooming together, and it was just an offhand remark, but Yerin said something about Yuju liking handsome guys and she sounded a little...disappointed about that?” 

“Wait, Yerin thinks Yuju is straight? That’s it? That’s the reason?” Eunha sat up completely straight on the sofa for the first time, jaw dropping. SinB makes an annoyed sound when Eunha’s weight shifts off her, but accommodates immediately to make up for the change.

“Right, we actually never asked…” Umji trailed off. Yerin’s uality was an open secret in the group, and the rest were okay with it -- it was a private matter and didn’t impact their activities as a group anyway. 

“So is she?” SinB looked over at Eunha, whose face was currently a shifting mosaic of different emotions. Incredulity warred with amusement on the older’s face, before settling into a cracked sort of laughter.

“W~ell...if you had asked that a few years ago that might have been a yes, but only because that’s what’s expected in society, yanno?” Eunha chuckled.

“We actually talked about that months ago, when we had a girls’ night out -- don’t look at me like that Hwang Eunbi, I know we’re all girls here but Yuju’s my bestie,” Eunha in a deep breath.

“We were just sort of discussing what we looked forward to in a partner in the future and now that I think about it, she absolutely was describing Yerin-unnie, even if she didn’t realize it at the time.” The bunny paused.

“That aside, most importantly, she said very clearly that she was more interested in what the person is like on the inside and that male or female doesn’t matter.” Eunha holds up her hands helplessly.

“That’s what I’ve got here, if it helps.”

“So what’s your type then?” SinB interjects curiously from the side. Eunha smirks, putting a finger to her lips.

“Secret~”

Sowon clapped her hands together. “Okay so, what we’ve gotten so far: Yerin probably likes Yuju but thinks she’s straight, and Yuju might like her back but doesn’t realize, is that it?” 

SinB and Eunha nod in unison, and the younger Eunbi snorts.

“I can’t believe Yerin-unnie doesn’t realize Yuju-unnie lets her get away with way too much kissing, the rest of us don’t let her do it that much anymore but Yuju-unnie never says no to her.”

“Well, Yuju-unnie is really nice, you know how she is.” Umji defends the main vocal, then pauses. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“So you think Yuju’s not nice?” SinB jabs quickly. Umji flushes.

“That’s not what I meant!” The maknae waves her hands around.

“It’s just how they’re all over each other all the time and mostly it’s Yuju-unnie getting grabby with Yerin-unnie and then--” Umji stops abruptly at the gossipy expressions on the other three members of the group. “Seriously, guys?”

“You mean they actually upgraded their flirting after we split dorms?” Sowon looked interested. 

“And Yuju initiates?” Eunha looked equally intrigued. SinB scoffs, turning her head away.

“Ew.”

“Thank you, Eunbi.” Umji looked relieved that her same-age member was in the same camp as her. The 98liners share a grin.

“What do we do about them now though?”

Sowon leaned back in her chair at Umji’s earnest question.

“Well, the easiest way is to grab the both of them and tell them to their face…” The two Eunbis looked oddly disappointed by this impossibly direct solution, and Sowon moved on smoothly.

“But then there’s that five person limit to gathering and we’d all want to be present for that conversation,” Eunha giggles at that, “so we have to figure out a different way.”

“Lock them in a room and don’t let them out until someone confesses?” SinB suggested.

“Tempting, but Yerin won’t make a move if she still thinks Yuju isn’t into her.” Sowon rejects the motion. Eunha scratches at her chin thoughtfully.

“What if Yuju makes the move first then?”

Everyone stared at her. SinB makes a vague gesture with one hand.

“Yuju doesn’t even know how she feels and you want to let her do that.”

Eunha looks smugly confident.

“I can just tell her, she’ll believe me.” Pause. “And if she’s still in denial I’ll bring ‘muji with me as a witness.” Eunha looks over at the maknae.

“I’m sure you have the receipts if Yuju needs proof, yes?”

Umji sighs, putting down the whiteboard. “Yes. Unfortunately. Yes, too much of it.”

Eunha thumps a fist into an open palm. “Well, that’s settled then. We’ll talk to Yuju and let her deal with it.”

“Are you sure she’ll confess though?” SinB asks skeptically, folding her arms. “Yuju-unnie’s always so professional, she might actually not do it just to preserve group dynamics.”

Eunha just smiles mysteriously.

“Oh, but she will.”

Sowon takes a sip from her hot chocolate while watching her members plot. “I feel like I should be worried, but…” The leader shrugs.

“It’s not like we have anything better to do right now…”