"Jimin-ahhhh~"

 

Aeri stirs, frowning when she wakes up to an empty space next to her and she opens her eyes. She doesn't see her girlfriend next to her in their shared bed. She calls Jimin's name again in a groggy voice, receiving no reply. God, where is her girlfriend?!

 

"Karina Yoo Jimin!"

 

She calls out again, sitting up on the bed, blinking lazily. She stretches her arms, her black silk pajama top riding up her torso, the breeze nipping at her abdomen. She yawns loudly, standing up and she unconsciously scratches her arm.

 

When she steps into the living room, she sees Minjeong and Yizhuo sitting side-by-side together on the couch, with the younger girl's head on the older girl's shoulder as Minjeong gently the top of Yizhuo's head.

 

"Good morning, lovebirds. "

 

"Good morning, Aeri-unnie," the two chorused together, eyes still on the television, watching a documentary… about tigers?

 

"You two are up quite early," said Aeri, watching the television, where the tigers on the screen start pouncing at each other.

 

"Not really. It's just a little bit past 7, isn't it?" said Minjeong, glancing up at the red clock on the wall.

 

"Yeah, but that would mean that you've been up since around 6am. And you were up till midnight, trying to write lyrics for the song that you were thinking of submitting to the company," pointed Aeri out and Minjeong shrugs.

 

"I guess you're right," said Winter, an arm snaking around Ningning's waist, pulling the other girl closer as they cuddled comfortably on the spacious couch.

 

Inwardly shaking her head, she looks around for their leader and when the scent of sizzling food on a pan enters her nose, she automatically trudges towards the kitchen, where she smiles when she sees her girlfriend bustling around with a wooden ladle in her hand.

 

"That's hot."

 

Jimin visibly jumps and Aeri bursts into laughter, making the older woman glare at her. Aeri peeks at the frying pan and sees seasoned fried rice sizzling in it.

 

"Jiminie~"

 

The older girl doesn't reply, grabbing the electric kettle and she pours hot water into four, different mugs. When she sets it back down, she jumps in surprise when she feels a pair of long arms wrap around her waist.

 

"Jimin-ah."

 

Karina still doesn't reply and she doesn't move either, what with Giselle limiting her movements at the moment.

 

"Aeri-ya, go wait at the dining table or in the living room. I'm still cooking breakfast for us."

 

Aeri doesn't move from her spot, nose nuzzling Jimin's brown hair and she could smell her lavender shampoo that was responsible for keeping the older girl's hair healthy.

 

"You smell nice," muttered Aeri, burying her face deeper in Jimin's hair that smelled that of lavender. Her nose bumps into Jimin's nape and she embraces her lover tighter.

 

She doesn't even know why she's like this. But for some strange reason , she feels like she needed to be with Jimin at all times. She craved Jimin's warmth, affections and… well, she craved everything about Jimin. And she felt like she was dying if she didn't have Jimin by her side.

 

"Aeri-ah, please wait out at the living room, I need to prepare brea- EEK?!"

 

Giselle's teeth sinks on Karina's skin, biting softly, earning herself a yelp from the other girl.

 

"Kim Aeri-"

 

Giselle doesn't reply, peppering kisses down the back of Karina's neck and the latter could feel herself blushing as she grips onto the kitchen counter.

 

The shorter girl steps back, twirling Karina around. Smiling, she closes her eyes and kisses the leader.

 

Karina hums, angling her head to kiss Giselle deeper. However, she tries pulling away when she feels Giselle's teeth grazing her bottom lip.

 

"Aeri-ah, not now," whispered Jimin, gently pushing Aeri away with a hand. Aeri whines and Jimin remembers that despite being older than Aeri for only a few months, the girl was still quite younger than her.

 

"I want to cuddle with you," complained Aeri, pouting at her, crossing her arms like how a child would do when throwing a small tantrum. 

 

"Later, baby," said Jimin, placing a chaste kiss on Aeri's pouty lips and the frown on Aeri's face vanishes, a cheeky smile appearing in its stead. Jimin returns her attention to the food that she's preparing and Aeri, who was all too content with the small kiss from Jimin (and the use of the pet name), backs away, still smiling widely.

 

"Alrighty then."

 

Aeri waddles to the dining table, sitting down like a child behaving to earn a small treat.

 

And when Jimin calls for the youngest members to join them as she places down the plate of fried rice and the plate of sunny side up eggs onto the table, Aeri quickly stands up, taking four plates and four pairs of chopsticks for them. And when she sees Jimin's eyes on her, she winks at the dancer and the laughter that follows her gesture is music to her ears.

 

--

 

Karina pretends to not notice it but she does.

 

It doesn't slip past her when Giselle starts clinging onto her as if her life depended on it. Which was a tad bit unusual because normally, it was quite the other way around.

 

She notices how Giselle had been a little bit bolder the past few days.

 

She remembers how two weeks ago, when they were filming for their 'Prison Interview' video, Karina, Winter and Ningning were sticking stickers on Giselle's face and Giselle disliked it. But then she said something along the lines 'As long as Karina attaches it' when they were thinking of adding the big heart sticker on her face. And what did Karina do? Internally gay-panicked as she tried to stay professional in front of the cameras, trying to calm her erratically-beating heart.

 

And when she teasingly asked Giselle if she loved her, the girl casually told Karina that she did and oh God, Karina has never prayed so hard until then.

 

Just the other day too, when they were at the radio show, Karina swears that she wanted to evaporate completely on the spot because of what Giselle said.

 

…

 

Laughter chorused together as they laughed at what the DJ said.

 

Karina flashes a smile at the DJ, leaning towards Giselle, who was sitting at her right side.

 

"What about you, Giselle-ssi?" asked the DJ suddenly, surprising them a bit. Giselle quickly regains her composure, smiling politely at the old woman before pointing at herself. 

 

"Me?"

 

The woman nods eagerly. And from the corner of her eye, the leader could see the rapper glance at her before smiling widely.

 

"Ah, you see," started Giselle, making Karina look at her properly. And the latter sees a small smirk forming on the former's lips and she wonders what was going on in Giselle's mind.

 

"Yes?"

 

"Ah, it's because lately," continued Giselle, pausing to look at the dancer and Karina could see a mischievous glint in Giselle's eyes, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. She doesn't know what's in Giselle's mind but she could tell that the girl was up to no good. "I've fallen for Jimin lately."

 

Karina barely pays attention to the teasing jeers from the younger members and to the loud laughter the DJ lets out because all she could hear were her heart's loud thumps and Giselle's words ringing in her ears.

 

And when she thought that the DJ was getting a little suspicious at her reaction, she laughed it off nervously, glancing at Giselle, who looked very smug with herself.

 

…

 

Karina cringes, shuddering at the memory as she takes her bottle of water from the floor, drinking. 

 

She remembers that one time during their photoshoot for Dazed Korea. She remembers how Giselle would cling onto her the entire day and God knows how conflicted she was that day. She remembers how Giselle kept on staring at her lips and it took all of her willpower to not pull her in for a kiss.

 

There was also that one, intimate moment during their filming for 'Forever Fairies'.

 

…

 

"In this game, we need to share compliments to each other," Giselle explains to the camera. "And you lose if you get flustered or if you fail to react."

 

And soon enough, both Karina and Giselle find themselves standing right in front of each other after Winter and Ningning's insistence that the unnies should go first.

 

"Let's start with our leader, Karina!"

 

"No no," Winter butts in. "How about we decide who's gonna start first after playing rock-paper-scissors?"

 

"I don't think that's how we do it in our fairy town though."

 

"Wait," Ningning says in her signature loud voice. "You're supposed to hold hands to start!"

 

"Ah, really?" Giselle asks, glancing at Karina, who looks away, pretending to look for her 'magic wand' to hide the growing blush on her face, completely forgetting that her wand was hidden behind her fairy wings.

 

But then the words that come out of Giselle's mouth makes her brain short-circuit. 

 

"It feels like we're getting married," declared the younger girl when they held each other's hands and Karina wanted to jump out of the window and try flying with the tiny fairy wings glued behind her back.

 

'Oh we'll definitely get married someday alright.'

 

"START!" the maknae yelled, pointing her fairy wand at Karina and Giselle's joined hands. They don't start immediately, however.

 

"Show them your friendship, " said Winter with a teasing lilt to her voice and Karina wanted to hit the younger girl's head with the wand behind her back if it weren't for the fact that there were cameras filming their every move.

 

"Yes, our friendship ," Giselle pipes up, staring into Karina's eyes before looking away to look at the other two members. "Is tight!"

 

"'Tyke'?" 

 

Before the other members could utter another word, Karina quickly spoke up.

 

"We should say compliments, right?"

 

Without even waiting for a response, she begins complimenting the other girl, determinedly gazing into her eyes.

 

"Giselle, you're so cute and lovely. You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen in the world," the words start pouring out of Karina's mouth - starts pouring out of her heart - and she sees that Giselle's eyes slightly widen at her words.

 

If the half-Japanese gets flustered, she doesn't show it as she flashes a confident smile at Karina. 

 

"Of course."

 

"Among all the faces that I've seen in the world, yours is the smallest and it's so