They hadn’t always lived together, at the beginning each of them lived with their respective sisters. Yongsun with Yonghee and Byulyi with Seulgi. Even though Byulyi second most visited place after the company was the Kim Yong household, she rarely slept over. 

It was an unspoken rule, sleeping over was stepping over a line they’ve put there themselves after a conversation three years into their music career. To not talk about it or acknowledge in any other way what they had with each other.

It wasn’t the perfect arrangement by far, being friends, coworkers and sometimes something far more meaningful than that. But they made it work, kind of. Their dynamic for the public eye was one, in front of their friends and family another, and when they were just the two of them, another one. 

Each of them filled with smiles and touches, with the knowledge and assurance that they were almost always alongside each other. To the point that tv shows and the public in general, almost always expected them to appear together or one of them find the way to bring up the other one when it was a solo activity. 

At this point everyone was already used to it. So nobody batted an eye when they moved in together. They told everyone that Byul missed living with someone since her sister moved out a year ago and decided to occupy the room Yonghee was leaving behind, it was true enough. 

Nothing changed much, except the rule about sleeping over changed to no sleeping in the same room, one of them always going back to their own room even if it was the middle of the night. Until they didn’t.

*

It was a regular day of them just lazing on, well of Byul lazing while Yongsun flittered around the apartment cleaning and putting things away. Eventually she ended up laying down on the floor by the couch, with Yongkeey sleeping next to her.

“I want a baby” Yong suddenly blurted without looking away from the ceiling.

“Ok, and how do you plan to get it? It’s been a while since your last boyfriend” Byuly replied, putting her energy into sounding casual in spite of the unexpected announcement.

“Ugh, you sounded a lot like my mom just there. There are other ways you know, I don’t need a boyfriend or a husband”

“Oh! Like that thing were they somehow a baby with the DNA from two women with science? Are you asking to be my baby mama?” Byul finally looked at Yongsun on the floor and wiggled her eyebrows with that last comment.

“Aish, don’t be dumb. I’m talking about using a donor, donor to be more precise”

“Oh, ok then, your loss, your baby won’t have my dashing looks” She tried not to sound too sad about that.

“Too bad Yul isn’t real right?” Yong said tentatively, sensing the mood Byul suddenly shifted into.

“Yeah, too bad. You can always ask Minhuyk, surely Changsub can get you in contact with him”

“Ew no! It would be too weird!” Yongsun’s sudden screams woke Yongkeey up, who walked away looking for a quieter place to continue napping.

“Why?! Because they would look like me?”

Hearing the hurt in Byul’s voice, Yong sat up to answer to her face to face. They were threading on dangerous territory and they needed to stop before it was too late. Searching for the right words she looked into her eyes, trying to keep her tone light.

“No! Because we know him, what if he wants to be involved? I don’t need that, it’s better if it’s from a stranger whose name I won’t even know”

“Oh…OK, good”

“Good”

*

The next steps come sooner than later. The initial research for a doctor and a clinic, the first appointment to check her general health and her options. Byulyi has been with her every step of the way so far without having to ask, one day she just decided that she was not only driving the older woman to her appointments, but also was going to be by her side asking all the questions she was too overwhelmed to ask and keeping tab of things around them.

They tell the kids during a get together in Hyejin’s place with more food than they can eat. Telling them is not just about their future group activities and how they will inevitably will go in hiatus, even now with their sparce group activities, but also because she wants her friends support in this new and exciting stage in her life.

Byul is the one to actually tell them, knowing Yong was too nervous to say the words. “So in no time you won’t be the babies of Mamamoo, you know?”

The kids just stare at them with confused faces, not knowing what to make of that comment.  “Are you calling us old?” Wheein finally asked, still confused with what she just heard.

“No, just that they will be a new baby here soon…Yong’s” she was trying to make it sound casual, like telling them she bought a new pair of Nikes, so casual that at first the younger women didn’t catch it at first.

They froze trying to decipher if she was being serious or it was just another weird way to annoy their leader.

“WHAT? YOU ARE PREGNANT?!” Finally understanding, Wheein screamed and jumped from her place on the floor.

“No no no, not yet” Yongsun quickly replied to the sudden outburst shaking her head and crossing her arms in an x “But I hope I’ll be, I’ll start trying after the awards season”

“Wow, that is really soon” Hyejin noted, deep in thought “Wait, trying with whom? Byul here doesn’t exactly have the body parts for that” Byul glared at her for that comment.  

“Just me, I’ll get the ingredients from a fertility clinic” She shrugged, ignoring the last portion of Hyejin’s sentence.

The younger pair didn’t miss the way Byul’s face fell hearing the -just me-, turning to communicate through a look they decided not to comment on it right there.

“That is really cool! I can’t wait to buy them tons of presents and squish their chubby cheeks!”

“We are really happy for you Yongsunnie, they’ll have the best aunties in the world to teach them how to be cool”

“So you are not mad?” The eldest asked nervously, a fact Byul noticed and squeezed her arm reassuringly.

“Why would we? This are great news” They were taken aback at the question, not following Yongsun’s train of thought in which this would cause a conflict between them.

“Exactly, we know this is something you really want”

“Even though we will probably go into hiatus? And we’ll have less time to hang out and all that?”